{"id":3804,"date":"2011-07-19T18:11:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T01:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=3804"},"modified":"2011-07-19T18:27:30","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T01:27:30","slug":"how-many-ipods-in-a-bipod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/how-many-ipods-in-a-bipod\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many iPods in a BiPod?"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Bettencourt, a defense attorney in Hawaii and a regular reader of the blog, sent this note about Burt Rutan and his early interest in hybrid power for aircraft.\u00a0 According to David, \u201cA July 2000 Road & Track <\/em>interview of Burt Rutan regarding the hybrid Honda Insight might be of interest.\u00a0 It stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes he see any application of hybrid propulsion for airplanes? An innocent question, although it leaves Rutan unusually silent. \u2018Gee, maybe I shouldn’t disclose this in Road & Track. But at the risk of someone else doing this first, let me tell you about an airplane that would be really interesting to do. \u00a0This is fascinating….\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cRutan leans back and stares into middle distance. \u00a0\u2018Visualize an electric airplane with enough batteries to climb to about 500 feet. \u00a0Actually, it would have several small electric motors with small propellers scattered all around the airplane\u2014some on the tail, some on the wings\u2014so if one motor seized, it’s just a nuisance. \u00a0Plus, there’s a phenomenal advantage here: You wouldn’t need control surfaces. Put a motor on a high part, one on a low part and give the first power and the other negative thrust or regen[eration], and you pitch down, for instance. No elevator, no ailerons, no rudder. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Okay.\u00a0 Now after climbing to 500 or 600 feet, the batteries are pretty much puked.\u00a0 However, onboard would be this gas-powered generator that would produce 10 to 20 percent more [electrical] power than you need to cruise. The climb from 500 feet would be slow, but, the most important part to climbing is the initial part, getting over the trees. For landing, or even if something bad happens like the generator seizes or you run out of gas, all the way down the props would be doing regen, charging the batteries up for a controlled landing (altitude being equivalent to potential energy). \u00a0During the last part, coming down, you actually want drag anyway; a very efficient airplane needs\u00a0 flaps or speed brakes to slow it down. <\/em><\/p>\n

“\u2019Here’s a prediction: You may find that within the next few years Burt Rutan will go off and build one of these.\u2019”<\/em><\/p>\n

Eleven years later, with a few differences in the execution of the plan, and slightly better batteries, that\u2019s what Rutan has done.\u00a0 Aviation Week<\/a>, Popular Science<\/a>, and Gizmag<\/a> all report on, as expected, a rather different vehicle that Rutan\u2019s team has brought forth.<\/p>\n

Guy Norris, reporting for Aviation Week<\/em>,\u00a0 says, \u201cScaled Composites is exploring potential development options for a twin-fuselage, hybrid-powered aircraft that could prove to be a practical solution to the long-held dream of a flying car.<\/p>\n

\u201cDubbed the Model 367 BiPod, the two-seat vehicle is configured with removable wings, stabilizer and tail tips to enable swift conversion into a road vehicle. Seating one person per fuselage, the BiPod is designed to be driven like a car from the left-hand cockpit and flown as an aircraft from the right side.\u201d<\/p>\n