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The eventual aim of the project was to circle for days as a sort of low-level observation or communications satellite, collecting and storing sufficient energy during daylight hours to sustain itself through the night.
It is expected to be able to remain aloft for five days, in part because hydrogen has three times as much oomph, per pound, as gasoline. But the idea of an airplane that consumes no fuel continues to intrigue experimenters and adventurers; in Switzerland, one team has just crossed the Alps on solar power alone, and another has announced plans for an airplane, Solar Impulse, that is intended to circle the globe. Robert Boucher at AstroFlight.
Replacing a gasoline engine with an electric motor and some batteries sounds like a simple matter—those are familiar technologies, after all—but it turns out to be harder than it looks. The project began a decade ago, when Buck and Monnett tossed around a whimsical idea for an electric airplane they called Flash Flight. It would have stayed aloft for 10 minutes on a bunch of D cells, and might have had potential for an ad campaign.
Today, Buck dismisses it: He and Monnett outlined a more ambitious project: Their electric motor, a small cylinder bristling with cooling fins, is typical of the class of motor suitable for aviation: Magnetic forces—attraction and repulsion—cause the rotor an electromagnet of an electric motor to spin. Some types use two metal tabs, or brushes, with opposite charges; during each revolution, the rotor comes into contact with first one brush, then the other, each time switching its polarity.
Our success as a company has come from delivering the best in electrical repair and installation services. Plug-in car sales totaled units in Check date values in: Nio ES6 makes appearance in China, on sale June. Domestically built new energy vehicle NEV sales totaled 1,, units between January and December Porsche ups the ante on fast charging speeds. The Automotive Development Policy and the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC are encouraging foreign investments for the new automobile brands to enter Pakistani market, while the leading manufacturers in the automobile industry in Pakistan are now introducing EV models with a wide range of prices which target consumers of diverse income groups.
To perform the same function, a brushless electric motor relies on a solid-state switching device called a controller. Rapid switching of high-voltage currents, however, turns out to be difficult. The currents have momentum, just like moving water, and a random surge can quickly vaporize even quite massive transistors.
Another problem is more mundane: The motors are hard to start. None of us recognized the complexity.
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Redrawing the electric-vehicle boundaries. First drive of mpg all-weather hybrid.
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