Another story from the Oshkosh Airventure air show, finishing today, has been the much-improved version of GreenWing’s eSpyder electric aircraft. It has already been licensed by the German aviation authorities and is available in completed form in Europe and in kit form in the US, where it sells at under $40,000. It flies quietly, without the engine roar of most light aircraft, and has a top speed of 68 mph. One charge will last you from 1 to 1.5 hours of flying, depending on speed. Basically it’s a fun recreational vehicle.
I wonder if this is another indicator that the age of the internal combustion engine is drawing to a close after a century and a half? I rather think the future of road transport might well lie with electric, driverless cars using electricity generated by gas-powered and maybe photovoltaic power stations. Developments in electric aircraft suggest that at the ultralight end of the market they might eventually supplant those powered by noisier and more polluting conventional engines. Until then, however, there’s a new, quieter way to enjoy the countryside.
Filed under: Updates |
Madsen Pirie 
Human ingenuity has few limits. I have been reading about nanotechnology recently. Carbon as we know it is black and non-translucent but a film of pure carbon has been created using nanotechnology which is totally translucent and so thin, it will allow selected atomic particles to pass through it uninterrupted but will also reject others. This opens up a vast range of possibilities including new methods of energy creation which we would call ‘ sci-fi ‘ today but tomorrow will be just accepted as the norm. Roll on electrically powered aircraft, cars, ships, homes, industry etc. without using conventional methods of power generation, even the National Grid would be redundant because energy could be beamed using this technology. The sky isn’t the limit anymore.