Green Aviation Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Introducing the Stearman Wing Conference Table (and other aviation themed furniture)

If you are looking to redesign your office space or give it an aviation feel, MotoArt has just created a unique series of Stearman Wing Conference Tables with each being a custom size in length up to 24 feet. Clients can also determine the final colors of the wooden spruce spars and base support legs with finishing touches including tempered glass that is custom cut to maintain the shape of the wing:

A quick look at the MotoArt website reveals a whole series of aviation inspired conference tables along with other types of tables and numerous other aviation themed pieces of furniture or accent pieces like a F-4 Ejection Bar Stool:

And then there is this G2 Gulfstream Conference Table that would definitely be the closest most general aviation pilots get to owning an actual Gulfstream!:

Then again, I don’t see any prices listed on MotoArt’s website as one needs to inquiry directly with them regarding pricing – meaning their bigger products could well be beyond the budgets of most general aviation pilots! With that said, MotoArt does have showrooms or sales offices in California, Maryland, Reggio Emilia (Northern Italy) and Amman (Jordan) where would-be decorators can see their aviation themed items in person or they can browse the company’s website. Likewise, the video below tells a little bit more about MotoArt’s design philosophy and “the art of being green with a strong historical presence…”

GA flight from Sydney to London on a fuel made from plastics

Few pilots are probably also readers of Plastics & Rubber Weekly or BusinessGreen but both publications have articles about Pilot Jeremy Rowsell who intends to fly from Sydney to London in a Cessna 182 powered from a fuel made out of plastic waste. Specifically, Jeremy’s “On Wings of Waste” project will attempt to break two records:

To be the first to fly via plastic waste fuel at 100% treatment.
To break a flight time from Sydney to London for a single engine piston plane.

To break those records, Jeremy will use a fuel produced by Ireland based Cynar PLC – company that is developing and has a patent applied for a technology to convert a wide range of end of life plastics (ELP) into liquid fuels. The plastic-derived fuel has already been tested in cars but Jeremy’s flight will be the first real-life trial in an aircraft.

However, Cynar chief executive Michael Murray has stated that the fuel needs more testing and trials but it should be just fine in a diesel engine not going beyond 8,000 feet. Jeremy will also be needing 400 litres to complete the London to Sydney flight with that amount of fuel requiring around five tonnes of plastic waste to produce. Hence and if large quantities of plastic waste can be secured, plastic based fuel could become a green fuel alterative for small general aviation aircraft but there is no mention of costs in either article and whether plastic based fuel will be competitive with more traditional fuels.

As for the flight itself which is scheduled for autumn (and more likily for November), Jeremy plans to stop along the 10,000-mile route at Darwin, Christmas Island, Sri Lanka, Oman, Jordan and Malta. He will also be cruising at 5,000 feet for stretches of up to 13 hours before reaching London six days later.

A closer look at the Solar Impulse

Last Tuesday, Bertrand Piccard, a 54-year-old Swiss psychiatrist and balloonist, completed a 19-hour flight from Madrid to Morocco in his solar-powered Solar Impulse. The transcontinental flight was intended to be a warm-up flight for a round-the-world tour in 2014.

The Solar Impulse is truly solar as it has 12,000 solar cells in the wings to turn four electrical motors. That also means that the Solar Impulse has a wingspan the size of a Boeing 747 but it weighs about the same as a family car. Moreover, the aircraft flies around 45 kilometers (28 miles) per hour at an altitude where oxygen and temperatures that can drop as low as minus 29 degrees Celsius (minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit) – meaning an oxygen mask is needed in order to breath.

Naturally, the Solar Impulse team has put together a few videos to show how their aircraft works and the following ones are worth noting:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JM2DWkqGp8&w=480]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCqiSuTY2lA&w=480]

Around the world flight in a Pipistrel suffers a setback

We have recently mentioned how a number of aviation sites are following Slovene pilot Matevž Lenarcic as he flies around the world in his modified Pipistrel Virus SW 914 Turbo with an Intercooler unit. Lenarcic, who is an avid photographer and a biologist, is also taking ecological measurements and gathering material for his twelfth book. Moreover and when he completes the trip, he would have flown the lightest aircraft ever (640 pounds) around the world to the west and set record for gas mileage (28 statute miles per gallon).

In mid February, Lenarcic had successfully landed in Antarctica and then Tahiti in late February but last week, the AOPA Pilot Blog reported that Lenarcic had landed safely in Australia at Ayers Rock Connellan Airport after suffering in-flight structural damage. A quick glance at Lenarcic’s website, GreenLight World Flight, reveals that he is still grounded and his aircraft is due for a thorough inspection on Tuesday that will determine his next moves.

Apparently, serious vibrations alerted Lenarcic to problems while he was photographing Ayers Rock but he was still able to fly and land the aircraft safely. So far, no word on what caused the problem or how this will impact Pipistrel Aircraft.

Nevertheless, Paul Bertorelli has written a lengthy post about his visit to Pipistrel Aircraft in Slovenia and how pilots there deal with $8 a gallon fuel prices. Specifically, Paul wrote that:

Nothing is for free, of course, and for that reason, people who don’t care about mileage may not like the Virus much. It’s smallish in the cabin and a bit tight. Headroom is adequate but not generous. Same with the baggage compartment. The seats are functional and spare. At every turn, components are small and lightened, albeit superbly crafted. The systems are simple and well designed.

Paul also wrote that thanks to aircraft such as this, members of the flying club he visited can fly off to Venice or Florence and back with gas to spare. Hence and despite the high cost of fuel and the heavy regulatory burden, Pipistrel Aircraft makes flying affordable – especially in group ownership.

Either way, let’s hope Lenarcic gets safely off the ground again and is able to complete his around the world flight.

NASA awards a green aviation prize for a fully electric four passenger aircraft

The Wall Street Journal’s News Hub has recently put together a short video segment about NASA’s green aviation competition where team Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, Pennsylvania won $1.35 million – the largest green aviation prize in history. The green flight challenge competition had invited citizen innovators and aviators from around the US to compete on the basis of fuel, speed and noise level standards with the winners being the designers of a first fully electric four passenger aircraft that is capable of 2 1/4 hours of flight at 100 mph (The runner up for the prize also had entered a fully electric aircraft).

Of course, it was mentioned that fully electric commercial planes are still a long way off but electric general aviation and recreational aircraft may be here sooner than we think. However, the Wall Street Journal’s News Hub segment did leave one technical or scientific question unanswered: Can you use your cell phone on an electric aircraft?!!

More flying cars: Introducing the M400 Skycar

General Aviation News has recently reported that the US’s FAA has accepted Moller International’s application for an Experimental Airworthiness Certification for the M400 Skycar – the last step in the federal regulatory requirements process just prior to an actual flight test.

In case you are not familiar with this flying car idea, the M400 Skycar differs from the more well known Terrafugia Transition flying car concept as its designed to be the world’s first and only feasible personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle that is intended to replace the automobile. Moreover and as you can see from the aircraft specs below, the M400 Skycar is designed to be a green aircraft as it will fly on ethanol.

However and as we noted last week, a debut of a Terrafugia Transition flying car prototype will be delayed as they have “encountered a number of the challenges that are common in aircraft development programs, including problems with third party suppliers.”

Hence, I suspect that the M400 Skycar will run into the same types of issues when its time to move into the prototype and production phases. Nevertheless and from the pictures below and on the company website, the M400 Skycar looks like a great alternative idea to being stuck in traffic!