The runner-up:
Posted on 10/04/2011 5:10:30 PM PDT by lowbridge
NASA has awarded a Pennsylvania company a $1.35 million prize for developing an ultra-efficient electric airplane.
The Taurus G4 airplane won the prize by flying 200 miles from Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif., in less than two hours.
CNN reports that the airplane was created by Pipistrel-USA.com of State College. There were 14 airplanes in the competition, but the Pipistrel won easily. It nearly "doubled the fuel-efficiency requirement" for the contest.
The requirements were to fly 200 miles in two hours or less on less than a gallon of fuel (or the equivalent in electricity) for each passenger. The Pipistrel airplane used a bit more than a half-gallon of gas for each passenger. Most of the airplanes in the contest used electric engines, however, some entrants were powered by gasoline or biofuel.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Nice glider.
—Most of the airplanes in the contest used electric engines—
I’ve never actually seen an electric “engine”. Must be pretty cool.
But where do you find an extension cord that can reach that far?? LOL....
A Spitfire would do that in 20 minutes.
Can you even start a Merlin on a gallon of avgas?
...not as cool as the gasoline “motor” in my car.
You must be a stickler ME — like me.
The greenies are going to insist on wind power for the electricity. Hydroelectric is out of the question...it might harm some rare fish.
I thought maybe they can buy out the entire supply of extension cords over at home depot and string them together? :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.