The Skyspark, a modified Alpi Aviation Pioneer 300 ultralight, flew for the first time on battery power alone on Wednesday 10 June and on 12 June it reached 135kt (250km/h), its expected cruise speed.
The battery-powered flight is a major milestone to achieve the Skypark's team objective of a fuel cell only powered flight, now scheduled for December. The all-electric prototype is designed to demonstrate take-off and cruise flight using only fuel cell power.
The two June battery-powered flights were testing the aircraft's all-electric systems as a safety precaution before the fuel cell is used. The aircraft's development is supported through donations of equipment and people's free time.
"We succeeded in taking our electric plane in the air as we had promised last Wednesday and on Friday we reached 250km/h in Turin," says the Skyspark project's leader, aeronautical engineer and former European Space Agency astronaut, Maurizio Cheli.
Cheli flew on the 1996 NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-75. He now works for Alenia Aeronautica as a Eurofighter test pilot, although Alenia is not involved in Skyspark. Using batteries Cheli expects Skyspark to have an endurance of about 35min and with the fuel cell about 1h.
A Turin-based company built Skyspark's dedicated electric motor. Liquid-cooled, it can deliver peak power of 75kW, but normally produces 60kW. Its fuel cell, developed by Turin Polytechnic, has a stack of three 20kW cells. Skyspark's designers plan for it to cruise at 135kt and have a top speed of 172kt.
In Spain in February and March 2008 Boeing Research and Technology Europe flew a battery-assisted fuel cell-powered Diamond Aircraft Dimona. Boeing says the aircraft will not fly again, but that the fuel cell technology will be applied to other projects, although it declines to say what those projects are.
- All the latest news, images and video from the Paris Air Show
Source: Flight Daily News
