One highly enjoyable aspect of writing this blog is waking up in the morning to emails from France, announcing some exciting developments for those who love small aircraft.<\/p>\n
Fabrice Tummers from Luxembourg Special Aerotechnics (LSA)<\/a> and Anne Lavrand from Electravia<\/a> alerted your editor to a cooperative venture in which they swapped out the original Eck\/Geiger motor\/controller and Helix propeller combination\u00a0 (with which the airplane set a class speed record<\/a>) on LSA\u2019s MC-30e Luciole (Firefly) for an Electravia power package.<\/p>\n Since many of the Michel Colomban-designed MC-30s are powered by a Briggs & Stratton V-twin that produces about 26 horsepower, the new electric motor setup provides a great opportunity to compare electric and internal combustion performance.<\/p>\n It should be a fair comparison, with the empty weight of the MC-30e with batteries registering a European legal ultralight 113 kilograms (248.6 pounds).<\/p>\n The new system includes a 26-horsepower E-Motor GMPE 102 (motor and controller), a two-bladed E-Props wooden propeller, and a Kokam rechargeable battery pack.\u00a0 Batteries have a 4.7 kilowatt hour capacity, an Electravia battery management system (BMS) and protection circuit module (PCM).\u00a0 Their 33 kilograms can produce a 55-minute flight in relative silence (52 dBA measured).<\/p>\n