Tecnam announced this morning it is suspending developmental work on its all-electric P-Volt. “Tecnam has concluded that the time for P-Volt is not yet ripe,” the company announced, “although research activities will continue to explore new emerging technologies.”
VERY cool to find these “insider” things. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and speak with several astronauts and talk with them in enough depth to see not only how focused they are, but several “insider” personal anecdotes.
We lionize our heroes and ascribe superhuman attributes to them, but when they show their human side, they become even more believable and give us hope that we too might be capable of doing great things–but isn’t that an almost-universal attribute of all great people?
Good subject for Engineer’s Week. Engineers aren’t the dry humorless nerds we’re usually depicted to be; forty years in the space business saw plenty of laughs. Earliest that comes to mind was an Air Force satellite in the '70s that developed issues with its attitude control system. Lieutenant Knight came up with a workaround which saved the mission; it was dubbed “Fly By Knight.”
One pair of satellites received in-house names in honor of one of the engineers who had developed breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. Her plastic surgeon had given her two options of “styles” for her breast reconstruction. “Perky,” “Sporty,” and the lady are all doing fine.
The parachute deployment is one of the reasons why they send robots…
It also is a reminder of how weird it is down there – very thin atmosphere means earth rules do not apply.
I notice the one instrument which does not feature on the downloads is a thermometre reading. If people actually realised how cold it is on Mars, alot of the nonsense about it would stop. All this stuff about having people up there by 2030 or 2050 – we can barely keep people at the South Pole, on Earth, and the South Pole is a lot warmer than Mars…
What a great article - truly inspiring reading about these achievements and also the tone/sentiment in which it was conveyed - thanks Paul! The last couple of sentences and the timing on the math cracked me up.
Competition is good. This competition specifically between SpaceX and NASA has been good from an engineering, purely technical standpoint as well as tongue in cheek humor. Now we have RUD/Rapid Unplanned Disassembly, DMT/Dare Mighty Things, OCISLY/Of Course I Still Love You, JRtI/Just Read the Instructions, aSoG/A Shortfall of Gravitas, SURF/straighten up and fly right, Merlins/F-1’s, and the long forgotten TLI/trans lunar injection.
Of course I still love you. The rapid unplanned disassembly resulted from dare mighty things. I straightened up and fly right largely because I just read the instructions. I may have a shortfall of gravitas but still enjoy Merlin and F-1 during the trans lunar injection. Look up…you know where I am. Yeah, even engineers can be “cute”.
Great article, nice diversion from the usual “controversies of the day”, and a reminder both the private sector of the USA and the American government are capable of doing great things AND having a sense of humor while pushing the boundaries of technology.
Good Day, eh?
How’s it goin’ eh?
Hey… what if that giant SpaceX can was fulla beer, eh? >snicker snort<
It won't be full for long with YOU around, hoser…
I would use “is” rather than “was” to describe Mike Collins, as he’s still with us at 90.
It’s no different than being on the moon. Actually, slightly less difficult, since mars actually has an atmosphere (as tenuous as it is). Getting to mars and back, on the other hand, is the real challenge. And landing and then taking off again. But actually being on the surface isn’t the difficult part.
While “Dare Mighty Things” may be JPL’s ethos, I think it is worth reminding the more modern audience that the person who first penned those words was referring of course to life in general, and to his conception as to how it should be lived.
Considering his life as a rancher, hunter, explorer, author, soldier, and politician he certainly practiced what he preached…among other things he remains the only person to have been the recipient of the Medal of Honor [as was one of his sons] and the Nobel Peace Prize.
I strongly suspect that Mr. [Theodore] Roosevelt would have been extremely impressed, but not surprised, by this latest achievement of American technology. Bully.
Paul, I set a link to your [cute] article to Mike (Collins). Hopefully, he’ll deign to weigh in on exactly what he thinks!
Hear hear
Well presented article. Nice to see a mainstream manufacturer being realistic.
Now if we could just get the endless stream of “vaporware” VTOL manufacturers with insane people mover ideas to do the same UNTIL battery technology matches their nutty ideas.
It would be interesting to have a “Futures Market” on the future viability and certification on many of these “Dreamware” projects. Those that REALLY BELIEVE the hype could buy options on the stock early–if the project DID deliver, they would make a killing.
The “Futures Market” would also be a barometer of the REAL public confidence of the proposed aircraft. As it is, we are bombarded with the unproven and uncertified “hype by press release”–and the projects usually fade silently away.
A “Futures Market” would be a bonanza for those able to pick the winners from the wanna-be’s for electric airplanes.
Perhaps this is related to the fact that the X-57, which is based on the Tecnam P2006T, has not flown yet.
Meanwhile, thousands of engineers with a basic understanding of energy storage are saying, “I saw this coming.”
That looks like a flimsy excuse to stop the development of a currently impossible aircraft.
But will it satisfy the investors ?
As an electrical engineer, until a battery is developed that has 10x the energy density in kWhrs per kg, none of the aircraft in development will fly ‘far’.
Even then, the recharging infrastructure at airports will need a huge upgrade in capacity.
Yep.
Tecnam isn’t exactly known for being full of bloomy 3d generated shine and glory and the companies management isn’t exactly known to burn investors money into thin smoke.
Stopping a project before it is hyped up beyond all recognition, just to ride on the E-Everything bandwagon, could just be sound and solid business management skill.
Reality may not always be as beautiful or charming, however, it always wins in the end. Research yes, eyes wide open, yes. Dreaming… and telling people that something currently impossible is possible… no!