Boeing Phantom Works chooses Dr. Seeley as Speaker
Leaders at Boeing Phantom Works have asked CAFE President Dr. Brien Seeley to be one of several keynote speakers at the SAE General Aviation Technology Conference in Los Angeles in September. Dr. Seeley will present a lecture entitled, “Progress in PAVs”, with an emphasis on the enabling technologies of flying cars.
CAFE Foundation's PAV Challenge webpage gets hot!
In a good-news/bad-news development, the number of hits on the CAFE web-page has exploded in popularity. This caused our site to exceed its GB traffic limit and incur extra charges. The interest level is so high that CAFE was forced to remove its very popular romantic movie, “Race to the Future” from the site. It will be made available soon by other means. The burgeoning interest in PAVs coincides with rising fuel prices, longer airline delays, and growing interest in alternative fueled vehicles.
New NASA PAV Challenge rules posted
A number of updates, changes and clarifications have been added to the PAV Challenge rules posted [here]. The changes , now officially approved by NASA HQ, make the rules more inclusive and close some loop-holes that were identified by our rules-sleuthing teams. The detailed event outline is soon to be posted here, and this will spell out the exact sequence and flight test preparation stages for each of the pentathlon events that comprise the PAV Challenge.
Air Force will lead in bio-fuel conversion
CAFE's Dr. Brien Seeley was selected to be among 100 aerospace leaders attending SAE's Aerospace in the News Symposium in San Diego on March 15. There, Brigadier General Charles R. Davis announced that the Secretary of the US Air Force has issued a mandate to convert our fleet of Air Force aircraft to bio-fuel in the next few years. Tests using bio-fuel in a B-52 have proven trouble-free and will soon be extended to other aircraft. One speaker stated that 'aviation does not want to be the last one supporting conventional oil'.
UAVs were a main topic of the meeting, and the technology overlaps between UAVs and PAVs were quite apparent. Leaders from Lockheed-Martin, Grumman-Northrop and Boeing, among others were expecting major future market opportunities to emerge around UAV and PAV development.
GSE progressing with bio-fueled GA engines
Greg Stevenson continues to make great progress in developing bio-fueled engines for GA. He reported in late March that the 6 cylinder engine has been built in both air and liquid cooled version. It rivals the 100 BHP Rotax but is about 20 pounds lighter, even including its belt-drive propeller speed reducer unit. Able to run bio-diesel as well as Jet A, this small engine is said to be capable of bsfc of 0.40 lb/hp-hr. CAFE expects Greg to be overwhelmed with request from teams in the PAV Challenge to use one of these engines in the flight competition.
Greg has also taken steps toward being able to convert conventional GA engines to run on Jet A by way of cylinder head modifications. His other small bio-fueled engines are of 6 BHP and 55 BHP and the 55 BHP model weighs only 45 pounds!
CAFE engineers creating flight test gear
CAFE engineers Steve Williams and Scott Nevin are designing and building new, state-of-the-art flight test hardware for the NASA PAV Challenge. These miniature computerized devices will record and transmit to the CAFE Flight Test Center via telemetry the flight performance data of each competing aircraft. Automated software will convert the data real-time into analyzed results.
Noise Prize grows to $50K!
After extensive discussion, CAFE and NASA agreed to increase the amount of the PAV Noise Prize to $50,000. This is a winner take all prize that averages both the Community Noise and the Cabin Noise of the competing PAVs. The PAV science archive posted [here] is rich with ideas on how to achieve lower noise levels, and we expect many teams to place high priority on this part of the 2007 PAV Challenge.
FAA to work with CAFE!
CAFE's Brien Seeley and David Lynch gave a 90 minute presentation to assembled Federal Aviation Administration officials on March 22 in Oakland to describe the safety aspects of the NASA PAV Challenge. The FAA was extremely helpful and receptive, and provided a number of good suggestions for how to facilitate the competition. FAA will provide expert staffing at the event in August.
Aerospace in the News
CAFE Foundation President Dr. Brien Seeley was among the aerospace leaders selected to participate in the 2007 Aerospace in the News Conference in San Diego on March 15. There he will join a small number of leaders from major aerospace companies, the DoD and NASA to discuss the impact of future trends on aviation. The topics will include the impact of oil prices, incorporation of UAVs into U.S. Airspace, sustainability of the aerospace business model and NASA's future aeronautical initiatives. Dr. Seeley will represent the PAV sector in these discussions. See: http://www.sae.org/events/ain/.
CAFE receives NASA Approval for 2007 PAV Challenge
On November 6, 2006, NASA Headquarters officially approved the Team Agreement and Rules for the 2007 Personal Air Vehicle Challenge. This opens the event for registration of teams who plan to compete for the $250,000 in prizes. The dates for the 2007 event are August 4-12. Download the rules [here].
CAFE receives "Notice of Interest" letters for PAV Challenge
Several teams that are planning on entering the 2007 PAV Challenge have sent in their Notice of Interest Letters to CAFE to obtain priority in being accepted into the competition. Only 16 teams can be accepted. CAFE will soon announce more news about teams entering the event.
Dr. Brien A. Seeley M.D receives Award
CAFE Foundation President, Dr. Brien A. Seeley M.D., was selected by peers at SAE International's General Aviation Technology Conference and Exhibition in Wichita, KS, August 31, 2006, to receive an "Award of Excellence" for his Oral Presentation entitled, "The PAV Challenge, NASA's 'moonshot for aeronautics'".
Dr. Seeley's presentation attracted a very large audience of aerospace and general aviation engineers and prompted a lively discussion among the experts in attendance.
NASA Launches Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) Challenge
Please read the full press release [here].
PAV Technology Pavilion at AirVenture 2006
The first ever PAV Technology Pavilion at EAA AirVenture was a major attraction this year. The most important of NASA's PAV sector technology projects assembled exhibits in the pavilion that showed visitors the amazing capabilities that future PAVs will embody. Included in the pavilion were:
- Carter Copter (VTOL, high speed PAV with high-G landing gear and scimitar propeller)
- GSE Engineering (Several new mid-compression multi-fuel diesel engines)
- University of Iowa (NASA low cost synthetic vision demonstrator)
- Munro & Associates (Laser horizon, pistonfan blade prototypes, cutaway Corvette powerplant, laser weld/bond fuselage, and Michigan SATS model)
- Barnaby Wainfan (Facetmobile demonstration and scale model)
- Terrafugia (The Transition roadable LSA)
- CAFE Foundation (Race to the Future movie debut, NASA Tailfan model)
More news and photos [here].
CAFE at Oshkosh 2006
Personal Aircraft Design Academy Symposium
Dr. Brien Seeley served as Program Chair for this year's Personal Aircraft Design Academy Symposium, which met Friday night July 28, 2006 at 7:30 PM in the Vette Theater of the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, WI. An excellent program on High Lift Devices and a new Corvette Powered 5 seat PAV was presented. The perpetual PADA Trophy was presented by PADA board member Todd Hodges to Alan Klapmeier of Cirrus Design.
CAFE in Popular Mechanics
The cover article on the July 2006 issue of Popular Mechanics is entitled "How You'll Fly" and presents a glimpse of the future of personal aviation. The article quotes CAFE President Dr. Brien Seeley describes the concept of computer-assisted piloting. Read the article [here]
CAFE at Society of Automotive Engineers
CAFE Foundation President Dr. Brien Seeley will be presenting details about the NASA-sponsored Personal Air Vehicle Centennial Challenge at the Wichita Kansas SAE General Aviation Conference. For more information click [here].
CAFE V.P. Dr. Larry Ford at Golden West FlyIn
On June 10, 2006 the CAFE plans for the NASA PAV Challenge were presented to the crowd of EAA enthusiasts at the Golden West FlyIn in Marysville, CA.
CAFE attends Aviation Industry Week
On March 29, 2006 CAFE Directors Jo Dempsey and Mike Fenn represented the CAFE Foundation at Aviation Industry Week in Las Vegas, NV.
CAFE at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C.
On March 14 and 15, 2006 Dr. Brien Seeley and Steve Williams attended the first annual NASA Allied Organization Summit at NASA HQ. All the Centennial Challenge host organizations met with NASA leaders to collaborate in planning the important future technology prizes from NASA.
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