The main trick that will be implemented in a ground up design is to place electric motors in each prop and throw away all the junk we have in between. The old pilot saw about a helicopter been ten thousand moving parts is still far too true.
A fuselage holding two rotors and electronic control package is about as flexible as one can make it and as minimalist. The electric wheel did the same for the electric automobile. A huge saving will be experienced in maintenance as will happen in the car business. This is not the time to become an automobile mechanic.
I think that this is going to move ahead far faster than is obvious here. This power pack lifted a turkey for fifteen minutes and that suggest that thirty minutes is a gimme and that an hour is possible. Also a fuel based generator to support this configuration is not out of line at all. It gats rid of the expensive parts of the power train when your battery pack becomes the back up for a light but sufficient power generator.
In fact what will drive this change over is just that. Everything about a helicopter has always been horribly expensive. This actually changes all that. We now have several integrated components that can be individually optimized and brought down in price drastically with mass production.
Of course, power generator configurations are likely still pigs but changing that was done decades ago but never implemented that I am aware of.
Having been involved somewhat with all aspects of the technology at one time or another – dated of course – I know that a hybrid configuration could be a barn burner and cheap enough to make essentially a commuter helicopter a safe and reliable possibility, particularly if we provide an effective auto pilot.
The operator’s role needs to be as minor as the designator of destination and to keep his hand of the stick. The natural redundancy plausibly eliminates the need for pilot training that includes autorotation. Today, that is the only real redundancy in a helicopter.
Project Firefly: Sikorsky unveils electric helicopter technology demonstrator
05:37 August 10, 2010
Officially announced at AirVenture 2010, Sikorsky's Project Firefly sets out to demonstrate the feasibility and showcase the benefits of electrically powered helicopters. The technology demonstrator is based on an S-300C light helicopter, with a 190-horsepower electric motor replacing the standard piston-engine and lithium ion battery packs added to either side of the cabin. The result is a significantly more efficient system that – although it's expected to fall short of typical helicopter performance when the first flight takes place later this year – is just the tip of the iceberg for the new era of manned electric rotorcraft.
Along with the electric motor and battery packs, the demonstrator includes a new digital motor controller and next generation cockpit display. The drive train, rotors and flight controls from the S-300C have been retained and very little has been changed on the airframe, as the electric motor has been designed to pick up the same hard points as the piston engine it replaces.
The 190 hp (142 kW) motor built by Californian firm U.S. Hybrid from California
The battery pack from German manufacturer GAIA consists of 300 cells – 150 in each bay – with an energy density of 0.13 kW per kilogram.
Inside, real-time aircraft information including temperature for left and right battery packs, flight time remaining and voltage is shown on an interactive LCD monitor.
Performance and efficiency
The comparative figures Sikorsky has released for the testbed helicopter show huge improvements in efficiency. The main rotor output, for example, is 76.3 percent efficient in the electric version versus 25.5 percent for a Sikorsky 76D running two PW210S turboshaft engines on JetA fuel. The other notable comparison is heat loss, where the electrical system loses just 15 percent compared to 73.4 percent on the 76D according.
“Through the electrical conversion, propulsion efficiency of the aircraft has been increased roughly 300 percent from baseline," said Mark Miller, Vice President, Sikorsky Research & Engineering. "Electric propulsion also inherently simplifies the complexity of the propulsion system by reducing the quantity of moving parts, increasing reliability while reducing direct operating costs.”
While both the cruising speed of 79 knots and the gross weight of 2150 lbs are comparable to the S-300C helicopter, the big issue, as with electric cars, is range. The demonstrator has an expected flight time of 15 minutes (compare this to the 3.7 hrs the S-300C gets from its 32 gallons of fuel) but as battery technologies get better, this will improve exponentially.
Lauder sees lithium air batteries as one of the most promising of these developing technologies. "Lithium air batteries would be lighter (because they have no anode) and provide nine times the energy density of the current batteries, enabling three hour flights and rivaling combustion engines."
The problem at this stage is that these batteries are non-rechargeable, but research and development of rechargeable versions is ongoing.
It's safe to say that the future for electric helicopters is bright. As battery technology matures the value of the systems showcased on Sikorsky's testbed can only increase. The company is already looking towards ground-up designs that will run two electric motors – one in the main rotor and another in the tail rotor. This approach, like electric car designs that place motors at or in each wheel, will further reduce weight and improve efficiency by bypassing the need for any conventional drivetrain.
Sikorsky electric helicopter specifications
· Max Gross weight - 2,150 lb
· Power 190 hp (142 kW) Permanent Magnet electric motor
· Lithium Ion Battery - 45 Ah, 3.6 V, 3 cells in Parallel = 135 Ah, 100 set in series = 360 V
· Forced Air Cooling
· Endurance - 15 min
· Max Velocity - 79 kt
· System Efficiency - 79 % (Cruise), 91 % (Max Power efficiency)
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