Green flight challenge: Aircraft design and flight planning for extreme fuel efficiency

Jack W. Langelaan, Anjan Chakrabarty, Aijun Deng, Kirk Miles, Vid Plevnik, Jure Tomazic, Tine Tomazic, Gregor Veble

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Green Flight Challenge occurred in September 2011 as a competition to spur extreme flight efficiency for general aviation aircraft. In order tocompete, an aircraft hadto demonstrate flight over a 200 mile course at an average groundspeed of 100 mph with a fuel efficiency greater than 200 passenger miles per equivalent gallon. This paper describes the design of Taurus G4, the world's first four-seat electric-powered aircraft, and the flight-planning techniques used in winning the competition. The aircraft demonstrated flight over a 196 mile course at an average speed of 107mphand an average equivalent fuel efficiency of 403.5 passenger miles per equivalent gallon of automotive gasoline. In this demonstration, it showed that battery-powered flight is practical for general aviation missions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)832-846
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Aircraft
Volume50
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Aerospace Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Green flight challenge: Aircraft design and flight planning for extreme fuel efficiency'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this