Wed, Oct 05, 2011
If you wanted to see aviation history in the making this week,
you needed to join ANN's Nathan Cremisino at the CAFE Green Flight
Challenge, where the fine folks of NASA awarded the largest prize
in aviation history, created to inspire the development of more
fuel-efficient aircraft and spark the start of a new electric
airplane industry.
The technologies demonstrated by the CAFE Green Flight
Challenge, sponsored by Google, competitors may end up in general
aviation aircraft, spawning new jobs and new industries for the
21st century. The first place prize of $1.35 million was awarded to
team Pipistrel-USA.com of State College, Pa. The second place prize
of $120,000 went to team eGenius, of Ramona, Calif.
Fourteen teams originally registered for the competition. Three
teams successfully met all requirements and competed in the skies
over the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa,
Calif. The competition was managed by the Comparative Aircraft
Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation under an agreement with
NASA.
The winning aircraft had to fly 200 miles in less than two hours
and use less than one gallon of fuel per occupant, or the
equivalent in electricity. The first and second place teams, which
were both electric-powered, achieved twice the fuel efficiency
requirement of the competition, meaning they flew 200 miles using
just over a half-gallon of fuel equivalent per passenger.
This week's competition marks the culmination of more than two
years of aircraft design, development and testing for the teams. It
represents the dawn of a new era in efficient flight and is the
first time that full-scale electric aircraft have performed in
competition. Collectively, the competing teams invested more than
$4 million in pursuit of the challenge prize purse.
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