2008 Challenge Announced
First-Ever Green Prize for Transportation
December 23, 2007
NASA and CAFE are proud to announce the largest technology prize ever offered for General Aviation. They have recast the PAV Challenge for 2008 with many enhancements. The official name of the flight competition is the General Aviation Technology Challenge. Its $300,000 prize purse, funded by NASA, is to be distributed amongst several key prizes, including the first ever "Green Prize" for transportation. This competition will be crucially important in the revitalization of general aviation and the advancement of its role in sustainable mobility.
The new prizes will be:
- The Community Noise Prize ($150,000)
- The Green Prize ($50,000) (MPG)
- The Aviation Safety Prize ($50,000) (Handling, eCFI)
- The CAFE 400 Prize ($25,000) (Speed)
- The Quietest LSA Prize ($10,000)
More information on the 2008 event and rules are available now.
Personal Air Vehicles:
The Second Century of Flight
Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs) are a new generation of small aircraft that can extend personal air travel to a much larger segment of the American population. As a solution to America's future mobility needs, NASA aeronautics developed the PAV concept to provide a more distributed and less centralized system of air travel. Near all-weather STOL PAVs will be able to transport people to within just a few miles of their doorstep destination at trip speeds three to four times faster than airlines or cars. NASA predicts that up to 45% of all miles traveled in the future may be in PAVs. This will relieve congestion at metropolitan hub airports and the freeways that surround them, reduce the need to build new highways and save much of the 6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted in surface gridlock each year.
To stimulate rapid innovation and progress in PAV performance, NASA Centennial Challenges has funded $2M in cash prizes for a flight competition called the PAV Challenge. The PAV Challenge is modeled after the "X Prize" and will be held annually at the CAFE Foundation's Flight Test Center. CAFE is honored to have been selected by NASA as the flight test agency for this competition. The first annual PAV Challenge will begin August 4, 2007 with a prize purse of $250,000.
Some key features of PAVs are:
- 150-200 mph car that flies above gridlock without traffic delays
- Quiet, safe, comfortable and reliable
- Simplified operation akin to driving a car
- As affordable as travel by car or airliner
- Near all-weather, on-demand travel enabled by synthetic vision
- Highly fuel efficient and able to use alternative fuels
- Up to 800 mile range
- Short runway use--Walk to grandma's from small residential airfields
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