Fastest electric airplane: Long-ESA Electric Airplane sets world record (VIDEO) Inyokern Airport, CA, USA -- Infinite-range electric aerospace company Flight of the Century, Inc. announced that their all-electric Long-ESA achieved a speed of 202.6-MPH during its second ever test flight at Inyokern Airport in California
- setting the new world record for the Fastest electric airplane,
according to the World Record Academy (www.worldrecordacademy.com). (enlarge photo)
The Guinness world record for the Fastest electric car is 487.672 km/h (303.025 mi/h) over a two-way flying kilometre by Buckeye Bullet 2 designed and built by engineering students at The Ohio State University at the university's Center for Automotive Research (CAR), driven by Roger Schroer (USA) at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA.
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the fastest electric motorcycle, set by the KillaCycle, which can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than a second.Driven in a race by Scotty Pollacheck (USA) at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado, USA, it reached a top speed of 167.99 mph (270.35 kmh) and covered a quarter of a mile in 7.89 seconds.
Purchased by Flight of the Century (FOTC) in April, 2012 as an R&D plane for development of the company's patented mid-air recharging technology, the highly modified Rutan Long-EZ (now "Long-ESA" for Electric Speed & Altitude) underwent a complete restoration and conversion from gasoline power to all-electric power in just two months at FOTC headquarters.
FOTC is engaged in a cooperative relationship with the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, who deployed high speed telemetry, radar and tracking cameras to capture Yates' historic flight adjacent to their restricted airspace.
"Our ability to fly long and fast without detection has definitely raised some eyebrows", said FOTC CEO and test pilot Chip Yates.
"I want to see our high-performance electric powertrain and mid-air recharging systems used to advance the cause of electric airplanes in general, and in the short term, the military applications are really interesting".
Following Oshkosh, the company intends to equip the Long-ESA with a custom designed lithium-ion series of battery packs and a front-mounted recharging probe to test mid-air tethering and battery jettison & rebalance technologies.
FOTC engineers have abbreviated and expedited the initial taxi/flight test program in order to quickly generate data, video and knowledge to share with some 550,000 attendees at the 2012 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh event, which runs July 23-29, 2012
Following Oshkosh, company expects a top speed of 230-250 MPH with the full-size battery pack in place in September. Attempts at world records for altitude will follow.
