Everett, Washington-based Magnix, a developer of all-electric aviation propulsion systems, announced today (June 7) that its partner Tier 1 Engineering, a self-described Southern California-based “design and development company serving the aviation industry,” flew an electric-powered Robinson R44 helicopter over the weekend. The flight, which used a Magnix power source, lasted “more than three minutes.”
Other than gleaning electric vehicle crash sites there is nothing about an electric helicopter that will do anything to ameliorate the organ shortage. Vile misdirection and deceit.
Surely some sucker investor or US taxpayers are funding this Rube Goldberg. How in the world does an electric helicopter with a three-minute endurance resolve a medical problem? I’m amazed that AVWeb would even report on such a ridiculous thing. Frank Robinson must be laughing uncontrollably in heaven.
I take it you aren’t familiar with how flight tests work, then. And helicopter flight tests are performed even more deliberately than aircraft flight tests, given that the consequences of failure are higher.
This is clearly described in the article as “flight”, not a “test flight” at all. It’s got to be a stunt or a joke. Even my BMW will last three minutes at a stoplight on battery power alone.
Go easy on the snickering. It’s just a milestone, a proof of concept and the start of much more research and testing.
By the way, how long was the Wright brothers first flight? It was followed by many jokes and derision by the horse and carriage set, but I think it turned out pretty well.
point well made. we forget how easy it is to criticize others, and in so doing, when placed in a larger historical context, only later realize what fools we were.
Funny how an article about a simple test to further R&D generates thinly-veiled arguments pro and against climate change. Once again Trumpians not just coming out and bleating their disdain for anything electrical. It’s perfectly their right but these same folks who denigrate Teslas won’t admit how wrong they were and years later won’t admit what a success EVs are. So now they turn to anything in the aviation space and continue their curmudgery.
I’m slightly skeptical of anything flying on batteries but not against people trying, innovating and learning. They and their investors are free to pursue whatever ideals and vision they’d like.
After discharging a huge battery pack in 3 minutes, did they use a bucket of water to cool it down? The only batteries will ever be viable in aviation is to use an onboard generating system. A prototype will be on display at Oshkosh.
Your beemer will never fly although it may go faster than a Robinson. Helicopters are flying the moment its off the ground, using power to hover. Can your beemer hover? Just configuring any helicopter to mate an electric motor and gearbox driving the rotorhead and tail is an engineering feat. I presume the gray appendage under the Robbi contains batteries and maybe taking up cabin space.
What arguments are you talking about? Something from another web site?
Seems to me this is a poorly worded story about a “test” that is really nothing more than a stunt to raise money for charity and get attention. Nothing was learned that was not known as far as I can tell. I don’t know what I don’t know, and the story isn’t saying.
One doesn’t need to be Trumpist to point out the issues here which are only tangentially related to climate. If you want to denounce Trumpism or denial of climate change then do a better of job of it. These are not frivolities.