NASA introduces the Puffin, your personal-use, all-electric airplane
Monday, January 25, 2010 at 01:18PM Everybody is talking about electric cars. But electric airplanes? For personal use?
As a matter of fact, yes.
NASA has just made public an experimental, electrically propelled one-man aircraft called the Puffin. The craft is designed for vertical take-off, landing, and hovering, and it can cruise at up to 240 kilometers per hour and put on bursts of speed up to twice that fast. The carbon-fiber craft is just 3.7 meters long, with a wingspan of 4.1 meters and a weight of 180 kilograms, including a 45 kilogram rechargeable lithium phosphate battery. Its range is about 80 kilometers in cruise mode, but designers say they can triple or quadruple that range by 2017 by improving battery energy densities. With no air intake needed for propulsion, the craft could theoretically climb to more than 9,000 meters as designed.
On the ground, the Puffin sits on its tail, which splits into four legs like a lunar landing module, propellers facing skyward. As it takes off (see video) it tilts forward so that the pilot lies prone. The small, highly efficient electric motor needs just 60 horsepower to generate enough propulsion to lift a person. Compared to internal combustion engines, which are just 18 to 23 percent efficient, the Puffin's electric engine is rated at 95 percent. From 150 meters away, its decibel level is measured at 50 decibels, about the volume of a conversation.
With its super-quiet engine and tiny thermal signature, the craft has obvious covert military potential, but civil applications are also highly likely. Early adapters will want one for personal use—other personal aircraft are already in development all over the world—while businesses could use them for a host of reasons, from couriers to security.
NASA has been involved in promoting personal aircraft for several years. In 2007 it awarded $250,000 in prize money to four winners of its Personal Air Vehicle competition. The competition promotes the use of "self-operated, personal aircraft for fast, safe, efficient, affordable, environmentally friendly and comfortable on-demand transportation as a future solution to America's needs."
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