34 Vol.3 No.6 / June 2014
UNDER THE COWL
THE 8TH ANNUAL Electric Aircraft Symposium, presented by the
Comparative Aircraft Flight Ef ciency (CAFE) Foundation,
was held April 25 to 26, 2014, in Santa Rosa, California.
According to CAFE President Dr. Brien Seeley, this year's
attendance was record breaking. With sixteen 20- to 30-
minute presentations on Friday and nine on Saturday, nearly
every subject was covered.
This year we were treated to some well-known EAA
members presenting their take on the state of electric fl ight,
beginning with Barnaby Wainfan (creator of the
Facetmobile )
who spoke on short takeof and landing (STOL) performance,
Brian Carpenter (of Rainbow Aviation and presenter on sev-
eral EAA "
Hints for Homebuilders " videos) who presented his
twin-motor
electric ultralight motorglider, and Mark Beierle
(Earthstar Aircraft) who spoke about his
eGull 2000 electric
aircraft that uses the
Joby motor .
Speakers for this year's conference were selected to pres-
ent on an overall theme of the "air taxi." STOL aircraft are
the fundamental basis for Dr. Brien Seeley's "
pocket airport "
concept, which in a nutshell is described as a two-acre parcel
located in or near residential areas from which autonomous
STOL air taxis can land and depart.
Also along those lines, presentations were made on Google's
autonomous self-driving cars technology, and on a way to make
aircraft propellers quiet using the same technology as active
noise reduction (ANR) headsets by using speakers to broadcast
sounds out of phase with the source, that being the prop.
Of the 25 presentations given this year, one was of real use
to homebuilders who are itching to go out and build something
today. This presentation was given by Dean Sigler (CAFE web-
site blogger and writer for Kitplanes magazine's "Alternative
Energies" column) who spoke on the hardware that's currently
commercially available to the homebuilder interested in elec-
tric fl ight.
For those who want to buy a kit or a turnkey electric
ultralight, Brian Carpenter presented his Quicksilver EMG-6
Part 103 legal ultralight, powered (self-launch) glider, with
deliveries slated for 2015. Mark Beierle, who has been fl ying
his
eGull 2000 electric ultralight at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh,
Arlington Fly-In, and Sun 'n Fun International Fly-In & Expo,
is of ering kits as well.
A complete listing of all the presentations can be found
here .
In addition to being the past editor of the Experimenter
e-newsletter, the current editor and publisher of Contact! maga-
zine, and a regular contributor to Kitplanes, Patrick Panzera is
an experienced homebuilder, EAA technical counselor, AirVen-
ture forums presenter, and an instrument-rated private pilot.
The 2014 CAFE Electric
Aircraft Symposium
Aircraft, engines, and batteries discussed
BY PATRICK PANZERA, E A A 555743
An artist's rendering of a proposed multi-passenger hybrid twin-engine aircraft
with a high aspect ratio wing, over the Golden Gate bridge.
A full house of presenters and participants at the 2014 CAFE Electric
Aircraft Symposium.
Photography courtesy of Pat Panzera
E A A E X P _ J u n e 1 4 . i n d d 3 4 EAAEXP_June14.indd 34 6 / 3 / 1 4 8 : 4 1 A M 6/3/14 8:41 AM