It was suggested that this project should have it's own thread.
I have a MONI single seat motorglider. It is not a particularly high performance glider and is more of an aerobatic touring glider.
This is a very long term project and as far as electric power goes it in the back of the envelope stage. I am hoping to keep the conversion cost below $10k (probably wishful thinking) and would like to have 30 kw available for take off. Range is not an issue as this is a playing around aircraft.
These little planes have been flown with electric power previously using a Lynch brushed motor but performance appears to be pretty mild and it appears that this is pushing the limits of that motor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2IrNIExHbM
There have been substantial improvements in power systems since this one was converted so I hope that I can develop a working formula that would work for other similar conversions.
I'll have to get out the scale and the weight and balance calcuations for this individual aircraft but it would appear that there is between 160-180 lbs that could be budgeted for a power system. The current power plant is a 25 hp KFM 107e with about 50 lbs of ballast attached to it. I am working on getting the KFM running at the moment to fly the aircraft in it's original form to get a feel for its performance and handling.
My back the envelope planning is looking at the Emrax 188 turning a 38" prop at around 6000 rpm. This is less than ideal but prop clearance is an issue with this aircraft. The high voltage versions seems capable of running at these speeds at the desired power level.
Battery would be an 80s10p pack of 3 ah 18650's arranged in blocks of 20s10p.
Probably going to spend quite a bit of time talking to the few electric airplane people at Oshkosh.
My background is that I work in the power generation industry as an instrumentation tech so electricity is something I am pretty familiar with.
I have a MONI single seat motorglider. It is not a particularly high performance glider and is more of an aerobatic touring glider.
This is a very long term project and as far as electric power goes it in the back of the envelope stage. I am hoping to keep the conversion cost below $10k (probably wishful thinking) and would like to have 30 kw available for take off. Range is not an issue as this is a playing around aircraft.
These little planes have been flown with electric power previously using a Lynch brushed motor but performance appears to be pretty mild and it appears that this is pushing the limits of that motor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2IrNIExHbM
There have been substantial improvements in power systems since this one was converted so I hope that I can develop a working formula that would work for other similar conversions.
I'll have to get out the scale and the weight and balance calcuations for this individual aircraft but it would appear that there is between 160-180 lbs that could be budgeted for a power system. The current power plant is a 25 hp KFM 107e with about 50 lbs of ballast attached to it. I am working on getting the KFM running at the moment to fly the aircraft in it's original form to get a feel for its performance and handling.
My back the envelope planning is looking at the Emrax 188 turning a 38" prop at around 6000 rpm. This is less than ideal but prop clearance is an issue with this aircraft. The high voltage versions seems capable of running at these speeds at the desired power level.
Battery would be an 80s10p pack of 3 ah 18650's arranged in blocks of 20s10p.
Probably going to spend quite a bit of time talking to the few electric airplane people at Oshkosh.
My background is that I work in the power generation industry as an instrumentation tech so electricity is something I am pretty familiar with.