{"id":7338,"date":"2012-12-27T22:59:29","date_gmt":"2012-12-28T05:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=7338"},"modified":"2012-12-28T11:29:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-28T18:29:20","slug":"the-two-day-electric-airplane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/the-two-day-electric-airplane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Two-Day Electric Airplane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine being confronted with a challenge to create an electric airplane in 48 hours, being filmed for much of those two days regardless of the frustrations or successes that come, and knowing that the entire adventure will be shown on the National Geographic Channel.<\/p>\n

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Robert Baslee’s Dream Fantasy ultralight, converted to electric power for a National Geographic TV series<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Robert Baslee, who runs Airdrome Aeroplanes<\/a>\u00a0in Holden, Missouri,\u00a0\u00a0has the kinds of experience that makes such a challenge plausible.\u00a0 He built four Nieuport fighters for the movie Flyboys<\/em> in 52 days with a small, dedicated crew, for instance. His wife and he supplied vintage-looking aircraft to the making of the film Amelia<\/em>. \u00a0He markets a growing range of WWI airplanes in full-size, 75- and 80-percent scale.\u00a0 A full-scale Bleriot XI replica from his firm crossed the English Channel on the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of Louis Bleriot\u2019s flight.<\/p>\n

Dick Starks<\/a> writes regularly for Kitplanes<\/em> magazine<\/a>, and regales readers in the February 2013 issue (on newsstands in early January, with yours truly\u2019s article following Mr. Starks\u2019 \u2013 shameless self-promotion at its best) with Baslee\u2019s latest and most electrifying moments.\u00a0 In his usual breezy style, he shares his philosophy on the nature of rebelliousness and free thinking, both applicable to him and to Baslee.<\/p>\n

Imagine that the NatGeo people asked you to strut your stuff in a series on Mad Scientists<\/em>, with your 48-hour challenge being to build and fly and electric airplane, using nothing more than off-the-shelf parts and spending a sum total of zero.\u00a0 Baslee met the challenge a bit lop-sidedly, but only because the first motor, an 8600 Watt wind turbine unit, took up smoking during bench testing.\u00a0 His crew also needed to buy some parts from hardware and auto parts stores, but otherwise found the initial motor, six 12-volt lead-acid batteries, and a motor controller and propeller literally on shelves in Baslee\u2019s shop, and attached these second-hand bits to the Dream Fantasy airplane sequestered in his hangar.\u00a0 The crew manufactured many pieces from scrap metal, sawing to size and filing to fit, but probably skipping the paint because of time constraints.<\/p>\n

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Dream Fantasy ultralight preparing for flight<\/p><\/div>\n

Use of a two-seat ultralight was an inspired choice because of the weight of the lead-acid batteries, with nowhere near the power-to-weight ratio of modern lithium cells.<\/p>\n

Baslee commented on the challenge in an email to your editor.\u00a0 \u201cIt was more for the fun of trying than anything else. I know\u00a0with the high tech components it would be pretty easy\u00a0to convert our\u00a0little aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the 48-hours diminishing quickly, the builders and film crew met at 5:30 a. m. to start flying before the heat of the day thwarted power and lift. \u00a0A heavy crosswind complicated things. According to Dick Starks\u2019 account, the plane, \u201cLooked like it might have gotten light on the gear,\u201d but the weak batteries and \u201csagging\u201d motor prevented actual flight.\u00a0 A second try with fresher batteries didn\u2019t do much better.\u00a0 While waiting for the wind to die down, Baslee replaced the propeller, charged the batteries fully, and managed a ten-second flight that attained five feet of altitude, all for the grateful cameramen.<\/p>\n

The story is better told in Dick\u2019s article and the whole show can be seen on the National Geographic\u2019s video, a small teaser of which can be viewed below.\u00a0 It at least gives an idea of what kind of man would tackle this challenge.<\/p>\n