Astro Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam32 Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 20 minutes of flight time then let her charge overnight...maybe Elon will help them out with some better batteries... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kona4breakfast Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 They want to use that thing to deliver organs to hospitals in order to reduce noise pollution and carbon footprint. Doesn't anybody do due diligence with their money these days? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lelebebbel Posted October 4, 2016 Report Share Posted October 4, 2016 (edited) 20 minutes of flight time then let her charge overnight...maybe Elon will help them out with some better batteries... that's a 700 Volt 100Ah pack, also known as 70kWh. Which is about the same capacity (and weight) as the battery in a base Tesla Model S. That makes it about as good as you can make them today. I would assume the whole thing isn't meant to be viable for practical use. It's a technology demonstrator and will probably be used to gather data on power demands during different maneuvers, motor behaviour, heat.. etc. Battery capacity may not allow the design of a practically useful electric rotorcraft, but there are lots of other components of the electric drivetrain that you can probably test this way. Edited October 4, 2016 by lelebebbel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARM_Coder Posted October 5, 2016 Report Share Posted October 5, 2016 Wow! I've played with RC electric helis for years, that R44 revving up really sounds like a rather big one! One curious thing is that with an electric motor you don't need a clutch at all. The speed controller can throttle the motor precisely so it won't overstress the transmission while overcoming the rotors' inertia. This is called "soft start" and avoids applying too much torque during spool-up. Unfortunately electric-powered helis suffer from low-endurance. In the RC world there are fuel-powered helis that can sustain flight very longer than the electrics. Just like in the full-size thing. Cheers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLH Posted October 15, 2016 Report Share Posted October 15, 2016 Maybe these clever guys can help Robinson design a set of main rotor blades that will reach TBO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARM_Coder Posted October 15, 2016 Report Share Posted October 15, 2016 Maybe these clever guys can help Robinson design a set of main rotor blades that will reach TBO. Good point, especially because of the infamous cracks on the 44's trailing edges. What makes me wonder, at this time metal blades could be a thing of the past. With so many composite materials readily available, why not? I'm not an engineer in materials, but I know that metal is sensitive to corrosion and fatigue, an issue not present in composites. Just food for thought. Cheers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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