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Chip Yates breaks yet another record, notches 202MPH in world's fastest electric flight (video)
Chip Yates is a speed junkie in the truest sense. After nabbing the title for world's fastest EV motorcycle in April of 2011, the self-proclaimed "green technology innovator" is at it again. This time, Yates was able to conquer the sky above using the Long-ESA EV craft he and his Flight of the Century team engineered using a Burt Rutan Long-EZ and proprietary Infinite Range battery tech. The record-breaking flight in question took off from Inyokern Airport on July 19, achieving a top speed of 202.6MPH and solidifying Yates' place in the pantheon of electric enthusiasts. You can head past the break to check out a brief video snippet of the successful mission in action, but fair warning: it's not as exciting as you'd imagine. We're guessing it's one of those things you'd have to be there (in the cockpit) to appreciate.
Electric plane performs taxi tests as prelude to transatlantic attempt (video)
EV flyer Long-ESA has started high-speed taxi tests on its quest to become the first electric airplane to cross the Atlantic. Using a Long-EZ kit plane designed by Burt Rutan as a platform for the volts-only powertrain, the Flight of the Century project is the brainchild of electric enthusiast Chip Yates, who already holds the speed record of 190MPH on an EV motorcycle. The developer's plan is to use a fleet of five drones to dock with the main Long-ESA ship and exchange batteries in mid-air, giving it enough juice to make the trip. Successful ground trials should lead to flight tests later this month, with the transatlantic attempt slated for 2014, followed by EV airplane speed and altitude attempts, to boot. It remains to be seen if the complex plan might result in commercial electric aviation as Yates predicts -- but judging by the video after the break it'll be fun to watch them try.
Paul Allen-backed Stratolaunch Systems promises flexible, low-cost access to space
When Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan and private spaceflight proponent Elon Musk team up on something, folks are bound to pay attention -- especially when they're promising nothing short of a "revolution in space transportation." At the center of that ambitious goal is a new company backed by Allen, Stratolaunch Systems, and a massive new aircraft to be designed and built by Rutan's Scaled Composites. If all goes as planned, it will be the size of two 747s (with a wingspan greater than the length of a football field), and it will be able to carry a 120 foot long rocket built by Musk's SpaceX to an altitude suitable for launch into orbit. Stratolaunch hopes to do that for a "fraction" of the cost of current launches, and it intends to eventually send everything from satellites to manned capsules into space. As you might expect, however, all of that is still in the early stages. According to Spaceflight Now, Stratolaunch currently employs around 100 people (it says it plans a "significant ramp-up"), and complete details on the aircraft itself remain a bit murky (intentionally so, according to Allen). Flight testing is currently slated for the "2015 timeframe," though, with the first launch expected a year later. What's more, while it's not clear how much Allen plans to invest in the project, he has managed to attract some other big names to the project; former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has joined as a board member, and Gary Wentz, a former chief engineer at NASA, will serve as President and CEO. Head on past the break for a teaser video of what they have planned.
Deadly blast rocks Virgin Galactic rocket test
This week is quickly becoming a tough one for the aerospace industry, as just a day after NASA reported tampering on an ISS bound computer, an explosion at the Mojave Air and Space Port has claimed two lives and seriously injured four others. The blast reportedly occurred during a "test of a new rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo -- a spaceship being built for Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company." According to a spokeswoman for the spaceport, the blast was "on a remote pad" at an airport home to Scaled Composite (which is the builder of the first private manned rocket to reach space), but the firm's founder Burt Rutan wasn't in attendance when the "cold fire test" went awry.
