2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium
April 29, 2008
The CAFE Foundation's 2nd Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium saw presentations that justify the rapidly increasing interest in Green personal air travel. Sponsored by Foundation Capital, the April 26, 2008 meeting assembled an outstanding faculty to discuss the many aspects of electric-powered flight. It included an remarkable announcement by the Experimental Aircraft Association that it has filed a request for the FAA to allow electric propulsion in low cost aircraft.Learn more about this event.
2008 GAT Challenge Announced
CAFE is proud to announce the 2008 flight competition successor to the PAV Centennial Challenge. The new competition embodies many important goals for the future of general aviation and is consequently named the General Aviation Technology Challenge. Learn more about this event.
FAQs for GAT Racers
Jan 21, 2008
In response to a flurry of inquiries about the rules for the GAT Challenge and how LSAs are affected, CAFE has posted these responses as FAQs.
UC Davis Grads Look at PAVs
Jan 15, 2008
Aeronautical engineering grads at UC Davis today received a lecture by CAFE President Brien A. Seeley M.D. about the opportunity for university teams partnering with members of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) to design and build aircraft to participate in the NASA GAT Challenge flight competition. Their professor, Dr. c.p. van Dam, concluded the lecture by asking the students to return to class with an aircraft design that could fit the Challenge. Teams from other leading university programs in aeronautical engineering are expected to enter the flight competition with guidance and airframes co-built by EAA aircraft builders.
ePAVs?: Lockheed and eeStor Ultracap Deal
Jan 11, 2008
A strong vote of confidence for the promise of ultracapacitor use in transportation was given by Lockheed's plan to buy the new ultracapacitors developed by eeStor of Texas. Ultracapacitors offer very high density storage of electrical power. This could allow several hundred mile range for electric-powered PAVs. Details are available here. Lockheed's official PR is available here.
Boeing + NASA Affirm Biofuels
An authoritative 8-page white paper on alternative fuels for use in aviation recently created by Boeing and NASA. The report cites many possible fuels, but concludes that algae biofuel is the "most attractive" alternative for mid-term sustainable mobility. Anyone interested in aviation's future in the face of concerns about Greenhouse Gas emissions and dwindling oil supplies, along with our need for a more distributed air transportation system, should read this paper.
PAV Engines List
CAFE has posted a partial list of established engine manufacturers and their websites. This list is intended to help teams preparing for the General Aviation Technology Challenge. See the list here.
The “First A” in NASA
NASA has produced a movie demonstrating the variety of aeronautics research currently underway in their programs. See the move here.
Remembering Dr. Paul MacCready
 "The passing of the visionary Paul MacCready is a great loss to all of us at CAFE, everyone in aviation and all who ever dreamed of flying. I had the great pleasure of getting to know Paul these last 2 years during his avid support for CAFE's PAV Challenge. Just from the brief time shared when he and his son, Tyler, stayed at our home one night, , I recognized that Paul was truly a Galileo of our time. He had that magical combination of wonder, humor, experience, obsession, dedication and determination that make for heroes.
Paul believed that daydreaming was his most productive activity. He understood the value of an open mind and revered the concept of doing more with less. Paul greatly facilitated CAFE's production of the short film "Race to the Future" about PAVs. CAFE was deeply honored that Paul agreed to serve as keynote speaker at the First Ever Electric Aircraft Symposium on May 23, 2007 in San Francisco. We will all miss him dearly."
- Brien Seeley, CAFE President
CAFE Foundation President Brien Seeley Presents at SAE Conference
September 29, 2007
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CAFE Foundation President, Dr. Brien Seeley, 2nd from left, was among the speakers at the SAE International Aerotech Conference on Flying Cars, held in Los Angeles on September 29, 2007. Also pictured from left to right, are Mark Moore (NASA Langley), Samuel Schweighart (Terrafugia), Paul Moller (Moller International), Jamey Jacob (Oaklahoma State Univ), Palmer Stiles (author, Flying Cars), Richard Strong (Safety Analysis Systems Co.) and Branko Sarh (Boeing Co.) The meeting demonstrated strong support for applying the newest technologies to flying car development. CAFE is currently considering how to integrate flying cars and roadable aircraft into the PAV Challenge.
Noise-reducing Windows
September 15, 2007
Discovery Channel Online reports about a new noise-reducing glass technology. The proposed system works by placing small sensors and vibration generators within the glass material creating an active noise cancelling system that can reduce a 100 decibel noise in half. [Link]
2007 PAV Challenge Results Posted
August 16, 2007
Results, photos and a summary of the 2007 NASA PAV Challenge are now available.
LSA Owners: Last Chance To Win NASA's
$250,000 Cash Prize
July 5 , 2007
The CAFE Foundation has just learned that 3 of the teams officially entered for the 2007 $250,000 NASA PAV Challenge have withdrawn from the flight competition for LSAs. This opens 3 slots for other teams to enter the August 2007 event. Teams wishing to enter must contact the CAFE Foundation immediately in order to complete their application for the event. Please see the full contest rules for more information.
Boeing Phantom Works to support CAFE Foundation’s PAV Flight Testing
June 30, 2007
Boeing Phantom Works, Boeing’s advanced research and development organization, is providing financial support for the non-profit CAFE Foundation flight research program for small, environmentally-progressive Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs). CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency, est. 1981) was chosen by NASA as the official flight test agency to conduct the annual NASA Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) Centennial Challenge, a $2M flight competition that rewards innovations in fuel efficiency, noise reduction, ease of use, speed and short runway capabilities.
Boeing support will help enable CAFE to create and use an advanced suite of new flight test hardware and software to measure the performance of competing PAVs. NASA’s vision is for PAVs to complement the NextGen air transportation system by offering consumer-attractive, on-demand air travel for short range trips. Future PAVs may include conventional takeoff vehicles driveable on highways, vertical takeoff vehicles and solar/electric powered emission-free aircraft.
CNN Coverage of the PAV Challenge
CAFE President Brien Seeley discussed the importance of the NASA PAV Challenge in a 5 minute interview with Jack Hanson of CNN Headline News. The interview includes edited clips of NASA animations showing synthetic vision as a key enabler of PAV operation and is being aired several times on CNN in early July 2007
CAFE Foundation hosts the First Ever Electric Aircraft Symposium
CAFE Foundation President Brien Seeley chaired The First Ever Electric Aircraft Symposium in San Francisco on May 23, 2007. Practical Zero Emissions Electric Powered PAVs that can fly hundreds of miles non-stop may become possible with advances in batteries, solar capture, high lift to drag ratios and nano structures. Driving the discussion was Professor Richard Heinberg's presentation on "The Challenge of Peak Oil." The Agenda for the meeting included the great Dr. Paul MacCready as well as leading experts in the field from NASA, Boeing, Ricardo and GSE. The talks focused on why and how electric powered PAVs will become important and valuable in the future.
The complete meeting agenda and PowerPoint presentations are available here.
The UberBarograph
CAFE engineers Steve Williams and Scott Nevin are volunteering their expert design talent to create 2 exciting new flight test innovations for the NASA PAV Challenge. One is a state-of-the-art new “UberBarograph” that will have much greater processing speed, signal averaging capability and memory than the already exemplary CAFE Barograph. It will also incorporate an improved graphic user interface, faster responding temp sensor and wireless signal output capability.
The UberBarograph will wirelessly send its data from its strap-on wingtip mount to the cockpit “BlueBox”, a new electronic data receiver/compiler/transmitter designed expressly for the NASA PAV Challenge. The BlueBox will be able to send multiple channels of data by telemetry from the aircraft being tested to the CAFE Flight Test Center. Its range of several miles will allow the CAFE team to get near-instant results of how the competing PAVs are performing.
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