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View Full Version : What Happened to the Electric Aircraft Competition?



Howard Handelman
06-14-2012, 06:51 PM
Last year's planned competition (was it $60,000?) was postponed to 2012. Now I can 't find anything about it on the AirVenture site. Does anyone know anything about this?

Ozzie
06-14-2012, 11:02 PM
It was supposed to be held over until this year to allow more development from the big names. Maybe more time is needed or it has to be postponed due to the economic climate. Practicality maybe also seeing a move more toward hybrid designs rather than straight electric. There has been no mention of it either in any of the EAA E Letters. I have not yet heard from Dale if he is actually going to make AV with the current version of the E Lazair this year. He was still having to sort the bugs out with the readouts and GPS integration into the system. New type batteries and controllers working fine, same Joby engines as last year. Hope he makes it. He created a real good old days feel with the huge crowds he gathered last year.

PaulDow
06-15-2012, 05:41 PM
I'm not involved, but if I were running it, I would have waited to see if the White House budget proposal was accepted before running the competition. If that $100 fee per flight for electric airplanes gets implemented, there would be no sense developing them.