World’s first battery-powered plane flies in Japan
OKEGAWA, Japan (AFP) - The world’s first manned plane powered by conventional dry-cell batteries soared five meters (16 feet) above the ground in a demonstration flight.
The glider-like plane with a single-seat gondola and a 31 meter (102 feet) wingspan was powered by 160 AA “Oxyride” batteries which have been produced by Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. since April 2004.
It soared as high as 5.2 meters, stayed in the air for 59 seconds and covered a distance of 391 meters (428 yards) at a private airport owned by Honda Motor Co.
“I was careful at take-off as it was very difficult,” said Tomohiro Kamiya, a senior member at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, who piloted the plane.
“As it soared five meters, people on the ground looked so small to me,” he added. “I did not expect it to take off so beautifully. I realised again how poweful it could be.”
Kamiya weighs 53 kilograms (117 pounds), almost as much as the plane itself.
The institute, known for its experiments with human-powered planes, and the giant electronics firm launched a joint project to develop the battery-powered plane in January, said Matsushita spokesman Kazuhiko Zushi.
In April the joint team completed the plane and suceeded in rolling and taxiing the aircraft in its first test flight.
In the second test the plane soared two meters above ground and flew some 400 meters “almost independently,” Zushi said.
Sunday’s flight was the first in the presence of officials from the Japan Aeronautic Association. “This was officially the world’s first manned flight powered by dry-cell batteries,” Zushi said.
The Oxyride battery is a long-lasting battery said to be 1.5 times as powerful as a regular alkaline battery.
ok… can we say waste of batteries? I’m sure that the cost was VERY inefficent. There would be many different ways to do this instead. But hey those “wacky Japanese” love doing things differently.
Tags: Aviation, Interesting, Weird
July 27th, 2006 at 11:29 am
This is hardly the first battery powered manned plane! I just visited a museum in Sinsheim Germany that displayed a dual electric motor (using NiCad batteries) powered ultralight aircraft. It flew many years ago - and could fly for 12 minutes! (I have pictures of it and would upload them if I could).
July 27th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Well this was the first plane powered with conventional batteries. an Electric plane has already flown around the world.
But none of those planes where flown on AA. I doubt anyone would be slow enough too.
I would be interested in seeing those pictures… go ahead and go to PhotoBucket or Imageshack and upload them.
Or heck if you are willing to try Picasa,
, because Google also provides a way to upload pictures from their program.
January 7th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I have some nice pictures of an electric plane in Suriname. I will try to upload them to photobucket.
Grtz
January 7th, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Computer-aided woodwork is definitely one of the best benefits of a high-tech world. But I wonder if such things are manageable by not too-technical persons like me. And the pricing seems way up there.
January 7th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I think you meant to post in this post (http://www.litwc.com/2007/01/0.....er-to-get/) instead… So either Wordpress messed up, or your post is in actuality spam.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:31 am
I hope there’ll be a battery-powered PC.. ^_^
January 8th, 2007 at 12:47 am
isn’t laptops battery powered?
March 3rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
160 Batteries? Although, perhaps the batteries were cheaper than jet fuel.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Nice. I like it.
April 28th, 2007 at 1:31 am
I won’t take that plane … Low Batt .. Blaxxzgds !!!
January 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
I have an electric battery powered plane and it is pretty difficult to get off the ground. Like you say it doesn’t use AA batteries but a more powerful kind. That is pretty impressive to get a plane off the ground with such a small amount of power.