Smallest Manned Electric Plane Flies

garymortimer writes "EADs have successfully flown an electrified Cri-Cri aircraft. The Cri-cri (short for cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban, the Cri-cri aircraft is the world's smallest twin-engine . At only 4.9 m (16.1 ft) wingspan and 3.9 m (12.8 ft) length, it is a single-seater, making an impression of a dwarf velomobile with wings at close range. After its manned flight trials the airframe will be configured for autonomous flight. Obviously once the pilot is removed payload increases dramatically and the airframe itself has been approved for manned flight so certifying it for UAV flight should be simpler."

Looks like 4 motors in this picture.

[RNLockwood]

Here's a link to the same story with a picture taken from the side, much more revealing. Four motors total grouped in two pairs.

http://www.aviationbusiness.com.au/news/cri-cri-the-all-electric-aircraft-gets-airborne [aviationbusiness.com.au]

Copy and paste summary

[Snowblindeye]

The Cri-cri (short for cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban, the Cri-cri aircraft is the world's smallest twin-engine .

At first I thought the writer of the summary had simply messed up when editing and repeated the same thing twice. But when you check wikipedia, it has the same mistake, even down to the space in front of the period: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colomban_Cri-cri&oldid=383417426 [wikipedia.org]

At least when you copy and paste verbatim from wikipedia, read the sentence and see if it makes sense.

Video on Youtube found of Electric Cri-Cri

[telomerewhythere]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbgcIOaDpw [youtube.com]
Here is a video of this Cri-cri.
Angle of attack seems high, and the landing looked a little rough.

Re:While I congratulate the designers...

[Caerdwyn]

The Ballistic Recovery System. A fine idea, but heavy. For a Cessna 172 (2700 pounds max weight), it's 79 pounds, which is 13 gallons of fuel, or about 180 miles farther you can fly. The smaller version for 500-ish pound ultralights is 18 pounds. I'm not certain that's the best possible way to spend the weight. Of course, if I really want one, I can go to the gym and get at least part of that weight back. :)

See http://www.brsparachutes.com/cessna_182_faq.aspx [brsparachutes.com] for details on what is certainly a fascinating piece of tech.

Re:While I congratulate the designers...

[Colonel Korn]

...I see a potential problem:

When it crashes, you, the pilot, absorbs the entire forces involved. Chances of survival are dimmed if not non existent.

That plane is an experimental plane for one.

Secondly, I see planes like that at my local airport with gasoline engines (single engine in the rear - I forgot what they're called.). This plane isn't out of the ordinary when it comes to any crash abilities or lack thereof.

Lastly, have you ever flown in a Cessna 172? It's a tin can with an engine. The trick is not to crash - hence all the safety training pilots go through even for the Sport Pilot license.

It also moves very slowly. Unlike airline crashes, most passengers walk away from private plane crashes. The stories with fatal endings get more coverage and skew the news reports.

Not the smallest

[gurps_npc]

Not by far. There are ultralight planes and some come with electric engines If you actually read the article as opposed to the incorrect summary posted, you see no claims for smallness. It is just the first ever FOUR engine all electric plane. The only important thing here was the 4 electric engines, not size.

Re:Coal powered?

[iluvcapra]

Christ.

engine: machine for powering equipment: a machine that converts an energy source into mechanical power or motion

"Engine" has the same root as "ingenious," and is attested in the English "engine," "gin," (like cotton gin) "ginny," and "jenny" (like "spinning jenny").

If it transduces force (force of a working fluid under heat/pressure or any other force) into motion, it's an engine. It's a positively ancient concept and the use of the term (and its cognates) predates the industrial revolution.

Re:Short for Cricket?

[thygrrr]

It's actually not, Cricket was the name the Canadians gave it when they sold the kits for the plane, Cri-Cri was the designer's daughter's nickname!

Re:While I congratulate the designers...

[pookemon]

The Cri-Cri has been around since it's maiden flight in 1973. To date there have been Internal Combustion and Jet (Google cricri jet) versions created. This is just the next step in the Cri-Cri's evolution.

More information [flight.cz]

As has been pointed out by others, most small aircraft (especially the aluminium ones) are just the pilot wrapped in tin foil. They are ALL designed to be light - not crashable.

Re:Reminded me of the BD-5

[wjsteele]

Actually, the BD-5A had the horrible wings. Since then, the design has been modifed to have a standard GAW wing airfoil, which is quite benign. It's lowered the stall speed from 105 down to 74. There is even a retrofit, called the Ribblett Reprofile, that allows the original wings to be modifed with the new airfoil. There has only been one recent fatal crash of a BD-5, which was back in 2006, and it was simply becuase the pilot forgot to connect the flaps correctly after they reassembled the plane, when he engaged the flaps on short final, only one flap extended, causing the aircraft to roll over. Bill