Electric Aircraft Developer Hopes To Duplicate Lindbergh’s Atlantic Crossing | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-10.06.25

AirborneNextGen-
10.07.25

Airborne-Unlimited-10.08.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-10.09.25

AirborneUnlimited-10.03.25

Mon, Jun 04, 2012

Electric Aircraft Developer Hopes To Duplicate Lindbergh’s Atlantic Crossing

World Record Holder To Attempt Landmark Flight

Eighty five years ago, Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to fly from New York to Paris nonstop. Now another pilot has announced plans to fly the same 3,600 mile route, but in an electric-powered aircraft. Chip Yates is head of the Flight of the Century (FOTC) team, and while in its early stages has already developed a patent-pending battery deployment solution for replenishing batteries in flight.

FOTC has purchased a Burt Rutan designed Long-EZ aircraft (N158TG) that is currently undergoing an all-electric conversion in its Orange County, CA, corporate headquarters.  Dubbed the “Long-ESA” for “Electric Speed & Altitude”, the 258 horsepower composite aircraft is scheduled for flight testing in July, 2012 followed by manned world record attempts for highest altitude and fastest top speed for electric airplanes.

Gizmag reports that Mr. Yates currently holds the record for world’s fastest electric motorcycle, and believes that electric long-haul flight is within reach and intends to prove it. His Atlantic crossing flight is not scheduled to take place until 2014, and he has much to do before then, beginning with getting his pilot certificate.

"I have a full-time flight instructor on my team, so we fly six days a week to get me my pilot’s license quickly in time for flight testing of the Long-ESA" Yates said. He currently has about 25 hours in his logbook, and says he is on track to get his license by the end of June. That would conincide with the timing for the taxi tests of the Long-ESA early in July.

In a news release in May, the company said its "potentially game-changing Infinite Range Electric Flight" technology involves a continuously flying electric mothership capable of docking with flying supplemental battery packs configured as UAVs. Once depleted, a docked UAV battery pack is jettisoned away from the mothership and autonomously glides down to a ground or ocean-base collection and recharge station. For infinite range electric flight, a replacement UAV battery pack is launched and is either hard or soft docked to the still flying mothership. For missions where re-docking is not practical, the FOTC team is also commercializing its patent-pending "Jettison & Balance System" (JBS) that it says will dramatically extend the flight range of today’s electric airplanes.

Work on the project started in April with his purchase of a Long-EZ Aircraft, which is in the process of being converted to electric power. It will be the test bed for development of the battery pack jettisoning system, and Yates hopes to use it for future record attempts. The FOTC team is working with Erik Lindbergh to promote electric flight and develop the flight plan for crossing the Atlantic.

The company is pursuing commercial and military applications and is in talks with collaboration partners from both areas, with more formal announcements forthcoming. (Images provided by Flight of the Century)

FMI: www.flightofthecentury.com

 


Advertisement

More News

Airborne 10.03.25: Phantom 3500 Buy, ‘Chinese Military Company’, NOTAM Redesign

Also: Lufthansa Chops 4000, FlyNow eCopter, Pilatus PC-12 PRO, USMC Buys 99 CH-53Ks Otto Aerospace announced that Flexjet will be its first fleet customer and its launch customer f>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (10.05.25): Terrain/Obstruction Alert

Terrain/Obstruction Alert A safety alert issued by ATC to aircraft under their control if ATC is aware the aircraft is at an altitude which, in the controller's judgment, places th>[...]

Airborne Affordable Flyers 10.02.25: MOSAIC Start Date, AFE25 Tickets, ePulitzer

Also: Bristell Receives Part 23, Sonex Highwing Webinar, AV-30-C Update, MOSAIC Consultancy The GA community is eagerly anticipating the date that marks the beginning of a new era >[...]

NTSB Final Report: Zodiac CH 650B

The Airplane Ballooned About 10 Ft Above The Runway When It Encountered A Wind Gust Analysis: The pilot was conducting takeoffs and landings in the airplane at the time of the acci>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: RDD Enterprises' LX-7 - Taking The Lancair to a Whole New Level

From 2019 (YouTube Edition): Company Updates Its Program For Highly Modifying Lancair IV-P Airframes RDD Enterprises, a company that was created to modify Lancair IV-P airplanes in>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC