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Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 1:32 pm
by grahame
Re: Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 2:07 pm
by justin.schoeman
The big problem with any electric flight (apart from self launch gliders) is the battery. Here are some numbers for cheap chinese LiPo batteries that I looked up for a thread on Avcom:
Then I looked at the batteries. Cheapest I can find are $320/hp/hour, weighing around 4kg/hp/hr.
So a battery to make 20hp for 1 hour costs $6400, and weighs 80kg!
So making an electic gyro should be quite easy. Keeping it in the air for more than 20-30 minutes at a time could be quite difficult (unless you have a really long extension lead

).
Re: Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:52 pm
by grahame
Re: Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:18 pm
by RV4ker (RIP)
Re: Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 8:56 pm
by OzGyro
Hi All
George - There are plenty of 60Hp and less gyro's flying in other parts of the world, just not here in SA. Light and cheap is definately the way to go but unfortunately the altitude here in JoBurg pretty much makes it impossible. Both Sportcopter and the Butterfly gyrocopter companys both make great light weight machines.
Cheers
Darren
Re: Electric gyros - practical?
Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 11:15 pm
by justin.schoeman
The joy of electric motors, is you can just put two 60hp motors on the same shaft, and you have a 120hp motor. The motor itself is a relatively small portion of the power system weight.