Siemens Builds the Chevrolet Volt of Airplanes

[IDemo]

June 23, 2011

Tucked in between the jumbo jets and military demonstrations at the Paris Air Show this week is a small motorglider powered by the first serial hybrid electric drive found in an airplane. The innovative plane is essentially an airborne Chevrolet Volt, with an electric motor turning the prop and a gasoline engine providing juice when the battery dies.

Like the Chevrolet Volt, the DA36 E-Star was designed for maximum fuel efficiency. Siemens developed the composite two-seater with aerospace giant EADS and Diamond Aircraft of Austria. The company hopes the technology easily can be scaled up to suit larger aircraft.

“We want to cut fuel consumption and emissions by 25 percent,” Dr. Frank Anton of Siemens said in a statement.

Beyond reducing fuel consumption, the hybrid drive can also greatly reduce noise heard by people on the ground.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/06/electric-airplane-uses-hybrid-power-similar-to-chevy-volt/

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. A better analogy would be the Tesla...

The Diamond series of light planes are very pricey.

Sonex is doing some electric powered flight development that is much more affordable.

[Confusious]

2. Bring back the zeppelins! nt

[madokie]

3. Our automobiles should have been built using a generator/motor drive

an ICE powering a generator that powers the electric motor that drives the wheels. Same set up that a diesel/electric train uses only scaled down. None of the gears are needed along with their wasted energy like our automobiles of today has. An electric motor has it most power right off standstill exactly what is needed in moving a vehicle from a stop. Without the diesel/electric setup that a locomotive uses today we'd still have steam powered locomotives as no other drive can get that big of a load that a train has moving. It can't be done with gear drives as our cars and trucks today uses, the losses would be prohibitive. Stop and give thought to what all is entailed in making one of the 6 speed transmissions that are common in todays automobiles. While you're giving thought to that think about how much more efficient an ICE would be or could be designed if it ran at a constant rpm rather than having to go from 600 or so rpm's to 5 ro 6 thousand rpm's All of that could be replaced with a simple generator and electric motor drive.
Catepillar D7E is a new development that they claim that it uses 60 percent less mechanical parts and is more efficient to boot.

http://www.cat.com/D7E

[BeFree]

4. Taxes. Gas Taxes

You do realize that with a scheme as wise as that, the gas tax revenue would have been cut in half over the years.

And that the oil companies would have sold somewhere around half of the oil they have sold over the years.

I swear, it is ideas like this that had they been instituted 50 years ago, would have led to a different world than that in which we suffer today.

[PamW]

5. Manifest IGNORANCE as always

None of the gears are needed along with their wasted energy like our automobiles of today has.
=============================

As always, we can count on some to trumpet their manifest ignorance by making things up instead of learning some science.

Gears do not waste energy, they are one of the most efficient parts of an automobile. The reason for the "low" efficiency of an ICE automobile is that
you have an "engine" and not a motor. An engine turns energy from a "fuel" to "work". The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics forces an engine to exhaust waste heat.
A motor changes one form of enetropy-free work like electricity to another form of entropy-free work like rotary motion. The 2nd Law doesn't limit that.
The problem is that you can't get entropy-free work without some form of "engine" and that "engine" will have to exhaust the waste heat.

Electrics look so good ONLY because you aren't looking at the complete cycle.

PamW

[BeFree]

6. Hey

How's Nukshima thingee working out for ya?

The idea behind the wasted energy on gears is twofold.
First the production and maintenance of said gears, and two the variable RPMs required to go through the gears.

[madokie]

8. Only a straight cut gear is even close to not having any waste and even it is not 100%

and no where in an automobile is a straight cut gear used due to the vibration and noise. all gears in an automobile is cut at an angle and due to that angle there is friction of one gear tooth rubbing on another. A hypoid gear that is used in rear differentials for instance looses close to 10% of the energy put in as wasted heat due to the large surface area of the teeth that are sliding one upon the other.

If you want to get technical the most efficient way to transfer power from one place to another is by chain. Google it if you want

Pay no attention to the person you replied to as she has no idea as to what she is typing. No fucking Idea at all.

for a little quick link that explains a little about angle cut and hypoid gears heres a wiki link. You'd thing that her would have known this information by the reply I got but guess what, she doesn't know shit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_bevel_gear

As I was saying in my post they should have been building our automobiles as they do a diesel/electric locomotive as it is much more efficient

[madokie]

7. PamW I hate to burst your bubble

but you just showed your ass when you said there is no waste with gears. The next time you go somewhere in your auto feel of the transmission or the rear differential if it is real wheel drive and see how long you can hold your pitiful little hands on either. Where does that heat come from you tell me. smart britches.

You are pathetic because you have no idea as to what you just typed.
Now you know where you and what you can do with that smart ass of yours and thats get it out of my face. I know very much what the hell I'm talking about here too big girl.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kristopher]

10. Describe and explain the difference

between ICE benchtop efficiency ratings and actual, on the road performance of the same engine.

Compare and contrast with electric drive.

[madokie]

11. I wish I could have read what was said before it was removed

Anyone who doesn't think that there are losses with gears is out of their mind. I can just imagine the diatribe that was posted