1st electric seaplane flight

[CYXR 257]

That's 3 short minutes for a pilot; 3 long minutes for a Beaver.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/electric-seaplane-float-plane-test-flight-harbour-air-1.5390816

bc

[charliearon 3,024]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/electric-seaplane-float-plane-test-flight-harbour-air-1.5390816

[FDEdev 955]

Poor raped Beaver. And the loss of the great radial sound. Couldn't they have used a modern toy like the Icon, where this mod doesn't hurt?

[CYXR 257]

Well, I have lived in interesting times. And I never thought a DHC-2 could have been made totally electric. It`s gonna need more power obviously. More power had been one of the reasons why the Beaver was/is great. I'm in Northern Canada; where Beavers are still doing what they were designed to do. They honor their designers, their pilots, the mechanics that keep 'em flying, the passengers and operators who trust them. The dust of WW2 was still settling when the Beaver was being developed and I still can't find the right words to describe it's greatness.

 

[wolke85 150]

Now that's cool! I agree: the old engines and all that will be missed, but seeing the de Havilland Beaver and eventually other aircraft, which were originally designed almost ages ago, to continue flying in the future with state of the art engines by then, is something that makes me a very happy camper too!

 

 

Edited December 12, 2019 by wolke85

[Paraffin 2,197]

23 hours ago, FDEdev said:

Poor raped Beaver. And the loss of the great radial sound. Couldn't they have used a modern toy like the Icon, where this mod doesn't hurt?

Well, you need a massively overbuilt and strong airframe to carry one ton of batteries, yeah? 😉

I read elsewhere that the motor is tiny, the size of half a beer keg. Consider that weight savings in the engine, plus no fuel tanks in the wings, no fuel pumps.

It's still probably overweight compared to a stock Beaver with all those batteries, but it might be practical for what they're aiming for -- basically a demo flight from Vancouver BC to Victoria BC and back. After a battery charge or replacing the battery pack.

[goates 576]

18 hours ago, CYXR said:

And I never thought a DHC-2 could have been made totally electric. It`s gonna need more power obviously.

The electric motor they used was actually de-rated to produce the same horsepower as the original engine. In the long run they are looking to use the same engine at full power in their Otters. This article gives more technical details than most of the others I have seen.

https://www.skiesmag.com/news/harbour-air-makes-history-with-electric-powered-beaver-flight/

One of the biggest challenges is getting battery weight down and power up.

[FDEdev 955]

5 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Batteries are big business 

And an environmental disaster. There are already a few documentaries about the still little known large impact on nature, animals etc. 

[wolke85 150]

20 minutes ago, FDEdev said:

And an environmental disaster. There are already a few documentaries about the still little known large impact on nature, animals etc. 

True. But in all fairness: literally all fossile fuels are an environmental desaster too. In the end the source with the lesser impact on the environment should be preferred i think. And the development of batteries is still early stages here so i remain confident that there is lots of potential for optimising still to be discovered. But sure, also lots of lessons yet need to be learned before a real sustainable and convincing solution will be on the table. But at least it seems to be heading in a good direction.

Edited December 13, 2019 by wolke85

[ckyliu 1,749]

TBH I'm not very impressed, electric motors are relatively straight forward. The difficulty is storing the electricity, I'd be interested to know what payload and range/endurance are, I'm willing to bet if you want to fly the thing for a couple of hours you'd have to fill it entirely with batteries. Gonna take more than 3 minutes to transform the industry, I wouldn't even call this a start.

Edited December 13, 2019 by ckyliu

[Murmur 3,941]

Cutting co2 emissions to pre-industrial level? Dream on... At some point the harsh reality will dictate the only possible course of action, i.e. adaptation.

[FDEdev 955]

5 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Only if you don't dispose of the batteries in correct methods ... most local electronics stores have battery drop points and 90% of batteries are recyclable... 

I'm talking of the little know fact about the environmental problems when producing large batteries for cars etc.  That's a drama that just starts to unfold since the production rates are still very low.

Concerning disposal; A few month ago the first Tesla crash happened in Austria with a totally destroyed Tesla and it took the owner of the car seven weeks to find a company which can handle/dispose the battery correctly. In the meantime the car had to be placed in a special container because no one knows if or when the battery ignites.

As Murmur mentioned, the co2 problem is way bigger than many of us dare to assume.

Btw, powered flight started with Gustave Whitehead, not the Wright brothers 😉

Edited December 14, 2019 by FDEdev

[FDEdev 955]

5 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

We have the intelligence to do something about, we don't need to be sheep and just "let it happen and hope" or the alternative "ignore it and hope it goes away or isn't real" ... I'm just not one for giving up.

I fully agree and I hope you are right!  e.g. Solar fuel seems to be a very promising solution 🙂

[wolke85 150]

7 hours ago, FDEdev said:

I'm talking of the little know fact about the environmental problems when producing large batteries for cars etc.  That's a drama that just starts to unfold since the production rates are still very low.

Concerning disposal; A few month ago the first Tesla crash happened in Austria with a totally destroyed Tesla and it took the owner of the car seven weeks to find a company which can handle/dispose the battery correctly. In the meantime the car had to be placed in a special container because no one knows if or when the battery ignites.

As Murmur mentioned, the co2 problem is way bigger than many of us dare to assume.

Btw, powered flight started with Gustave Whitehead, not the Wright brothers 😉

Regarding the Tesla which burnt in Austria, it was due to cable fire, if i recall the news correctly and the batteries were not damaged At all. Other than that i think that Tesla was either very cautious about letting anyone get to close to their batteries for whatever reasons of product piracy or so, or it simply was some bad kind of technical support and customer service... i guess though that this kind of behaviour will happen less in the future, once there are more battery driven cars around, but sure it was a bit of a strange behaviour by Tesla.

Now regarding the co2 levels and climate change being a big problem, well: lets face the challenges ahead! And we have to start somewhere to move on and get forward. And as this Beaver on top here clearly demonstrates - although, no doubt, being early stages and still lots of work ahead - scientific and technological progress already has to offer a lot ... so lets make use of it🙂

Edited December 14, 2019 by wolke85

[CYXR 257]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:38 AM, goates said:

The electric motor they used was actually de-rated to produce the same horsepower as the original engine. In the long run they are looking to use the same engine at full power in their Otters. This article gives more technical details than most of the others I have seen.

https://www.skiesmag.com/news/harbour-air-makes-history-with-electric-powered-beaver-flight/

One of the biggest challenges is getting battery weight down and power up.

Same HP... but it needs more (stored) power to increase it`s range.