Speed records for gas airplanes go back a long way. In February 1912, Parisian Jules Védrines, piloting the Deperdussin Monocoque, with its 140 hp (100 kW) Gnome double Lambda engine, broke the 100-mph barrier when he clocked 100.92 mph (162.5 kph) above Pau, southwest France. It was to be another decade, interrupted by war, before Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, test pilot for Nieuport-Delage, took their Sesquiplane, powered by a 12-cylinder 447 kW (600 hp) Hispano 12Hb engine, over the 200 mph (320 kph) barrier. The location was Ville Sauvage and the date September 1921. It would be another seven years before the 300 mph mark was broken by Mario de Bernardi in the Macchi M.52bis seaplane with a speed of 318.62 mph (512.77 kph).
In October 1883, the Tissandier electric airship had cruised above Paris at a gentle speed of 10 kph (6 mph.). In 1973, although the main goal was the duration and not the speed, the MBE1 was timed at approximately 120 kph (75 mph). In late 1980, Paul MacCready’s Solar Challenger’s regular flight speed, as measured on her airspeed indicator, was 42 mph (68 kph), although at higher altitudes, such as 12,000 ft (3,700 m), her true airspeed limit would have been 20 percent higher, or about 50 mph. But there was never an official FIA speed or altitude record attempt made, or homologated.1
This was the same for the electric airspeed record established by an Italian astronaut, Maurizio Cheli. Born in Zocco near Modena, Italy, on May 4, 1959, Cheli attended the Marco Minghetti Classic College of Bologna and then entered the Pozzuoli Aeronautical Academy, coming second in the Corso Urano III, in 1978. In 1982, he finished his studies at the University Federico II of Naples, obtaining a degree in aeronautical science. In 1983 he obtained operational assignment as the reconnaissance pilot for the famous F-104G. In 1988 he trained as a test pilot at the Empire Test Pilots’ School in Boscombe Down, England, winning the McKenna Trophy as the best student in his class, the Sir Alan Cobham Award for the best results in the flight activity, and the Hawker Hunter Trophy for the student preparing the best Test Preliminary Report.
In 1992 he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) and was sent to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he obtained a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Houston. In 1996, having trained with the USAF, boarding the Space Shuttle Columbia, Cheli took part in the mission STS-75 Tethered Satellite with the role of mission specialist, passing more than 380 hours in orbit. That same year he joined Alenia Aeronautica and two years later he became chief test pilot for combat aircraft. His last test program was for the Eurofighter Typhoon with its top speed of 2,495 kph (1,550 mph/Mach 2).
In 2008, Cheli took part in a conference with a big audience at the prestigious Science Festival of Genoa, organized by journalist Giorgio Pacifici. Cheli described his experience on the Shuttle and spoke about Hyský. This was a new prototype 1 kW fuel cell electric plane developed by Paolo Pari at the Department of Aeronautics and Space Engineering of Turin Polytechnic, which had reached an altitude of 5,000 meters (16,000 ft). Soon after, Cheli founded DigiSky with the goal of setting a world air speed record for electric airplanes. In this he was accompanied by the team at Turin Polytechnic led by Professor Paolo Maggiore. The aircraft chosen was a Pioneer 300, offered by Alpi Aviation of Pordenone as a testbed. Its wooden frame made it lightweight and easily adaptable to the testing of new installations. Other technical partners had soon joined the team. The SKP-VAL2 motor was a 75 kW (101 hp) brushless unit fully designed by DigiSky and the Polytechnic of Turin and built by SICME; named “Valentino,” it derived its energy from 102 7.5 kWh Li-Po cells. Between March and October 2008, ground tests were carried out with the integration of the technical systems by January 2009. On January 28, the aircraft, called the SkySpark, was presented at a press conference of the Piedmont Region, with the announcement that it would attempt world speed and endurance records. The plane was then modified by adding a new inverter, normally used in F1 racing automobiles, and new control software developed by Magneti Marelli. Maurizio Cheli made his first test flight on June 10, 2009, as part of the World Air Games in Turin. Two days later, SkySpark achieved a silent speed of 252 kph (155 mph). Although not homologated by the FAI as a record-setter, Cheli thus remains at the top of an honorable list that will grow with the passage of time.
On September 5, 2010, pilot Hugues Duval established a speed record for electric aircraft in the MC15E CriCri “E-Cristaline.” The aircraft was equipped with French Electravia engines, controllers, batteries and propellers. During the Pontoise Air Show, a top speed of 262 kph (141 kt) was recorded by Aero Club de France organizers. Then, on June 25, 2011, during the official flight presentation at the Paris Air Show (Salon du Bourget), Duval established a new world record of 283 kph (175.46 mph), although it too did not qualify under the FAI Section 2 sports aircraft rule.
Another electric airplane speed record was established on April 13, 2011, by Jean-Luc Soullier at the Friedrichshafen Air Show. Flying his single-seater Luciole MC30E ULM, Soullier achieved a speed record of 136.4 kph (84.7 mph), although his record was not ratified because he had not filled in the claim form correctly. It was an achievement which had taken this 54-year-old very experienced French commercial airline pilot and instructor some five years. In 2006, when Soullier had begun to examine the potential of a lightweight electric airplane, the first candidate was a Rutan Quickie, a lightweight single-seat taildragger airplane of composite construction, configured with tandem wings. By 2008 Soullier had progressed to an MC15 “CriCri,” as designed in the 1970s by Michel Colomban. To electrify, Soullier replaced the twin JPX gasoline engines with German Plettenberg Predator 37/6s electric units with energy from 4 packs of Kokam batteries yielding up to 6 kWh. On September 8, 2009, Soullier made a short flight in the MC15E from runway 23 at Maubeuge Elesmes, northeast France; the flight might have lasted longer had it not been for the controllers burning out simultaneously. Soon after, Soullier turned to Michel Colomban’s latest Firefly MC30, which could be classified as either airplane or ULM. Soullier recalls:
Working with Colomban, and Werner Eck, the designer of the Geiger 15 kW Flytec brushless motor, we rolled up our sleeves and less than a year later, on 1st August 2010, the MC30E took off from track 10 in Brienne-le-Chateau, north-central France, for a short and successful flight. In subsequent flights we improved the internal cooling of the propulsion chain, and also, with Richard Kruger of Helix Carbon, designed and built the blades for Eck’s variable pitch propeller. Our battery was the same 4 Kokam packs as the CriCri totalizing 6 Kwh. We planned to establish some medium-term FIA world records in the RAL1E class. At the beginning of 2011, we signed an agreement with the Albert II Foundation of Monaco to act in its name and in its colors during the Aero 2011 aviation fair in Friedrischafen. Although unpaid, the prestige of such an action could not be overlooked, especially since very few world records in electric propulsion had been registered at this time, so the advertising effect would be maximum and coordinated with the issue of a stamp bearing the image of the machine by the Monegasque postal services. As the stakes were high, a maximum of precautions were to ensure a credible result at a fixed date and time. Indeed, the Prince wanted the result of the flight to be announced at the end of a meal he chaired to gather all that the world counts in the matter of green aviation. On the 13th of April 2011 at exactly 1 p.m., I took off from Runway 25 at Friedrichshafen. Watched by several hundred plus local TV, and in a gentle breeze and clear sky, I made my attempt with our untested craft. The speed I registered on a 15 km round trip was successfully completed at an average speed of 135 kph. Mission accomplished, even if eight months later the FAI would reject the file for defect of form while the flight was perfectly eligible, I then felt no feeling of injustice because I am one of those who think that the regulation is published for everyone that guarantees its fairness. On the other hand I had a formidable desire to start again.
Soullier decided to replace his Flytec with a 15 kW Agni pancake motor developed by Cedric Lynch in England and the variable pitch propeller with a fixed one. Despite recurring controller problems, on February 27, 2012, the Frenchman climbed to an altitude of 743 meters (8,000 ft.) without problems. Seven months later, on September 29, 2012, Soullier took off from Koksyjde, West Flanders, in Belgium and, timed by FAI judge Fred Van Aersen, increased his speed record to 189.87 kph (117.98 mph), duly homologated. Soullier recalls: “I succeeded despite a cloudy sky, rough atmosphere and adverse wind component on both legs—autumn is not a friendly season along the North Sea coast and this deprived me of the honour of being the first electric airplane to register a speed of more than 200 kph. However it was the True Air Speed during the flight, but the FAI only registered Ground Speed, a pity, but then again, five years later, the performance still holds.”2
July 2012: Jean-Luc Soullier in the MC30E ultralight aircraft prior to establishing the 117.97 mph (189.87 kph) record over Koksyjde, Belgium. Note the deturbulator devices set on the wings and behind the canopy (courtesy Jean-Luc Soullier).
Although dogged by technical bad luck, at the time of writing, Soullier remains determined to perfect his MC30E to further increase his record in the ULM RAL1E (FAI sporting code section 10) and Aircraft C1a/0 G6 (FAI sporting code section 2) categories.
Once a record is established, somebody else wants to break it. Towards the end of 2011, William Morrison Yates III, aka Chip Yates, very recent holder of several electric motorcycle records at 200 mph, became more than interested in electric aviation. Yates was born on February 11, 1971, in Portsmouth, Virginia, spending his early years in Pittsburgh, where he displayed an early interest in mechanics. By the time he was thirteen years old, he could disassemble and reassemble complete motorcycles. At age fourteen, Yates was sent to Culver Military Academy, a co-ed boarding school in Indiana where he received his high school education. He went on to receive a master’s degree in business entrepreneurship from the University of Southern California, where he was later hired as adjunct faculty. In 1997, Yates replaced automotive designer Chip Foose at ASHA Corporation, where he invented and patented a series of hydraulic control valves for the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee. He also launched a start-up company called “SWIGZ®” to market his patented dual-chambered fitness bottle concept. From 2001 to 2004 Yates served as a technology-marketing executive of the Boeing Company, and then Honeywell Aerospace from 2004 to 2015.
Meantime he went in for auto racing. He competed in the SCCA Club Rally and Pro-Rally Series driving a 1989 Toyota MR2 that he built with a 1.6 liter supercharged engine. In 2001, Yates won the SCCA Southern Pacific (SOPAC) Group 5 (2-wheel drive class) Rally Championship. In January 2007, at age 36, Yates switched to motorcycles and entered a beginner’s motorcycle track riding course at Auto Club Speedway near Los Angeles. He became drawn to motorcycle racing, earning enough points during the 2007–2008 amateur road-racing seasons to turn professional within nineteen months of his first track experience. In 2009, Yates competed in the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class in televised professional races at Auto Club Speedway, Infineon Raceway, Laguna Seca, and Heartland Park, before his season ended prematurely with a broken pelvis sustained in a high-speed racing crash during AMA competition.
While unable to race due to his broken pelvis, Yates recruited two volunteer aerospace engineers, Ben Ingram and Robert Ussery, to develop an electric racing motorcycle capable of meeting his goal of equaling gasoline-powered motorcycle lap times. Yates announced plans to ride the hand-built prototype in the newly formed TTXGP and FIM e-Power electric motorcycle race series. To accomplish gasoline performance parity, Yates and his team developed and filed patents on several new electric vehicle technologies including a kinetic energy recovery system (“KERS”) designed to capture braking energy from the front wheel of the motorcycle. In 2011, Yates rode his 258 hp electric superbike at over 200 mph (322 kph) to eight official world land speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats, 4 AMA National Championship Records, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record, and the Guinness Book of World Records title of “World’s Fastest Electric Motorcycle.”
To prove his stated mission to show that electric vehicles do not have to be slow and boring, Yates and his team next leveraged the technology from the electric superbike including the 193 kW (~258 hp) UQM electric motor to assemble an all-electric airplane. Purchased by Yates’s venture Flight of the Century (FOTC) in April 2012 as an R&D plane for development of the company’s patented midair recharging technology, the Rutan Long-EZ underwent a complete restoration and conversion from gasoline power to all electric power in just two months at FOTC headquarters.
While this was progressing, on May 22, 2012, Yates announced plans to build a 100-foot wingspan custom electric airplane that he intended to fly along Charles Lindbergh’s 3,600-mile transatlantic route. Using a patent-pending midair recharging concept, the aircraft would receive battery recharges from a series of five unmanned recharging aircraft or drones en route, with the goal of matching or exceeding Lindbergh’s average speed. The challenge of midair refueling is not new. In 1923, two Airco DH-4B biplanes flew in formation with a hose run down from a hand-held fuel tank on one aircraft and placed into the usual fuel filler of the other. In this way an endurance record of 37 hours was set by three DH-4Bs, a receiver and two tankers, involving nine midair refuelings.
By July 2012 all was ready for the speed attempt. Yates having received his private pilot’s license on July 12, 2012, after two months of training, the unprecedented test program then moved to FOTC’s Inyokern Airport facility, in Kern County, California. Yates made his first taxi test on July 14, his first runway test July 16, and conducted the first flight on July 18. Then on July 19, on the second test flight, he achieved a speed of 202.6 mph (326 km/h), beating Frenchman Hugues Duval’s record by 27 mph. The flight ended in an emergency dead-stick landing following an in-flight lithium-ion battery problem, the same pack he lifted from his record-setting electric motorcycle. On-board video footage shows Yates barely making the runway at Inyokern Airport after the flight. FOTC was 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’s historic flight adjacent to their restricted airspace. After the flight, officials from China Lake visited the FOTC hangar at Inyokern Airport to corroborate the flight data.
During the summer of 2013, Yates and team installed a brand-new battery pack from EnerDel. The new 450-volt pack could produce a continuous 600 amps, and most importantly, it had not been abused setting world records on a motorcycle. Weighing 525 pounds, the new battery takes up the entire back seat of the airplane, leaving just enough space for the pilot. Renaming his e-airplane Long-ESA (“Electric Speed and Altitude”), he set out to create records in other categories. Many of the records for electric airplanes had yet to be established, and Yates set the goal of being the first to set the newly-created official FAI records. On October 5, at the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento, he successfully set his first Guinness World Record, “Time to Climb to 500 Meters,” with a performance of 1:02.58, measured from wheels stopped until the aircraft reaches the required altitude.
The following day, on October 6, 2013, Yates set a second Guinness World Record for “Fastest Electric Airplane” with a run in one direction of the 1 kilometer course of 220.9 mph (355.5 kph), in the other of 212.9 (342.6 kph), with an average 216.9 mph (349 kph):
So there I was, strapped into the tight cockpit of the electric airplane once again, only this time there were 100,000 people watching me and I had fresh memories of three power failure, dead-stick emergency landings during similar world record flights from the months before. Behind me were the Canadian Thunderbird jet demonstration team waiting to follow me, and in front of me was the empty runway where I had been cleared for takeoff by the California Capital Airshow control tower. I held the brakes tightly as I ran up the 258 horsepower electric motor, checked that I had 450 volts ready to go, tightened my seat belts and let it rip. There was a lot of vibration and a big surge of acceleration as I was catapulted down the runway. Just as I reached the area where the spectators were gathered along the fence line, I pulled back on the fighter-style joystick controller and flew the plane off the ground at an incredibly steep angle. My instruments showed I was in control and climbing at greater than 2,500 feet per minute. By 1,500 feet the Guinness record was mine. I flew some exhibition banana passes for the crowd, landed and pulled out my American flag, which waved in the wind as I taxied past the fans and back to the pits to prepare for the top speed world record.3
Yates then announced plans to set new top speed marks over 3 km and 15 km with another attempt at the 3,000 meter time-to-climb mark. He realized these plans only days later: “Time to Climb to a Height of 3,000 Meters” in a record-setting time of 5 minutes 32 seconds; “Speed Over a 3 km Course” with a 4-pass average speed of 201 mph (324.04 km/hr); “Speed over a 15 km Course” with a 2-pass average speed of 140 mph (225.88 km/hr). Yates’s time-to-climb world record performance of 5 minutes 32 seconds demonstrated a sustained rate of climb of 2,000 feet per minute from ground level to 9,843 feet above the ground (3,000 meters). This is a greater performance than most gasoline-powered airplanes and was selected by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) as the “Most Memorable Aviation Record of 2013.”
Chip Yates’s exploits in pushing electric vehicle technology earned him recognition as a “Pioneer of Aviation” from the State of California in the form of Assembly Resolution #1740, presented to Yates in Sacramento during Senate and Assembly sessions on August 30, 2012.
Following his electric motorcycle and electric airplane world record campaign, Yates expanded his role in aviation through a number of ventures including winning a U.S. Marine Corps contract to design and build a 1,000-lb. (450-kg) payload disposable drone to resupply troops in harm’s way, leading a hybrid-electric aircraft development program, conducting battery pack design for automotive manufacturers, and marketing an aerospace structural titanium 3D printing technology. In November 2017, the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) selected the Yates Electrospace Corporation (YEC) Silent Arrow product line of autonomous cargo aircraft for a 12-month flight test program. A fleet of 10 aircraft from 500 to 1,000-pound gross weights will be evaluated.
Chip Yates III adapted the technology of his record-setting electric motorcycle to modify this Rutan Long-EZ, in which, on October 6, 2013, watched by 100,000 spectators at the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento, he increased his own world electric air speed record average from 202.6 mph to 216.9 mph (photograph: Tara Larivee/Yates Electrospace).
Chip Yates, 2013 (photograph: Tara Larivee/Yates Electrospace).
Meanwhile others went air record-breaking. On June 21, 2014, Gary Davis took off from Greenville Downtown Airport in Greenville, South Carolina, in his ultralight trike, a custom combination of a North Wing Stratus wing matched to an electric-powered trike frame designed by Gary Randall Fishman, and reached a record altitude of 4,660 feet (1,420 meters).
Raphaël Domjan of Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, well known in the nautical world for his solar-powered boat, the PlanetSolar, which completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in 2012 without using a drop of fossil fuel, is currently working on a venture he calls SolarStratos. This is a twin-seat solar aircraft which Domjan will pilot to a record-breaking altitude of 80,000 feet (25,000 m), requiring 4 hours of constant climb. Designed by Calin Gologan, SolarStratos would be a lightweight adaptation of a PC Aero single-seat electrically powered aircraft. Measuring 7.7 meters (26 ft.) long, its 25-meter (82-ft) wingspan and tailplane are covered with 20 m2 of solar cells (24 percent efficiency) linked to eighty 1 kg Li-Ion (20 kWh) batteries to power a 13.5 kW electric engine. For a fee, a passenger will be able to share the same breathtaking experience. On December 7, the SolarStratos (registration HB-SXA) was officially unveiled at Payerne airfield; 300 guests attended including personalities, ambassadors, representatives of local and national authorities, and sponsors.
On May 5, 2017, coordinated by SolarXplorers and financed by numerous sponsors, piloted by Damien Hischier, the 25-m-span Elektra-2 solar electric ultralight (420 kg) aircraft successfully completed its first 7-minute flight at an altitude of 300 meters over Payerne. SolarStratos was equipped with a space suit made by Zvezda of Moscow, enabling Domjan to experience a simulated flight to 13,000 meters at a temperature of -55° Celsius; the aircraft will be towed around on the ground by a bio-fueled vehicle. The first pilotless stratospheric flights at an altitude of up to 20 km are planned in 2018, which will culminate in new record altitudes for solar-electric aircraft. It will have a pilot on board and up to 50 kg of payload; no other solar-electric aircraft in the world with a comparable payload has reached this altitude. The SolarStratos is equipped with an automatic flight control system developed at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in Oberpfaffenhofen.
On September 3, 2017, on its eleventh flight, the 33-ft (10-m) Airbus Perlan II carbon-fiber glider reached a new world record altitude of 15,902 meters (9.88 miles). The two pilots, Australian Morgan Sanderock and American Jim Payne, were towed up into the sky above El Calafate, southern Argentina, in the mid-wing, two-seats-in-tandem, pressurized, experimental research glider as designed by Greg Cole and built by Windward Performance at Bend Municipal Airport, Oregon. With its 83.83-ft (25.55-m)-span wing, the Perlan II was able to use stratospheric mountain orographic waves to fly up to the stratosphere at over 600 kph. The onboard Li-Po battery enabled the pilots to keep warm using electric socks and vests. Ultimately the Perlan II will attempt to reach 90,000 feet, a world record for any wing-supported flight, with or without an engine.
The English have a fine tradition of breaking airspeed records. The e-challenge has been taken up by Rhodesian-born composites guru and flying enthusiast Roger Targett, originally of Severn Valley Sailplanes repair and maintenance center in Gloucestershire, England. Originally Targett called his plane the TEACO Bat, but partly because Internet inquiries often sent inquirers to TESCO, a UK grocery retail company, he changed the name to Electroflight. With Targett’s wealth and experience coming from the composites industry, inevitably Electroflight’s 200 kW Electric Lightning P1 E, once built, will combine advances in carbon composite materials and construction methods with emerging electric motor, control system and energy storage technologies. Its twin propeller contra-rotating propulsion offers unique maneuvering capabilities. Electroflight linked up with Williams Advanced Engineering, with their experience in Formula E racing automobiles in the goal to establish a 300 mph+ record. Two- and four-seater aircraft are envisaged and will be sold through the name Electropulsion based at Nympsfield Aerodrome, near Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England. By early 2017 the propulsion system design was finalized and the structural test panels had been made and tested. In October 2017, when Cranfield University in Bedfordshire opened its Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC), co-funded by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), on the program was the completion of Electroflight’s challenger.
Drones have also established records. On February 23, 2016, Dirk Brunner, technical consultant and engineer, set a Guinness World Record when his custom-built quadcopter drone took just 1.3 seconds to accelerate to a speed of 100 kph (60 mph), reaching a maximum climb speed of 189 kph (119 mph), and took a total of 3.871 seconds to reach a height of 100 m (328 feet). Brunner’s ascent was accurately measured by an on-board logging barometric altimeter. The record took place above Pasing Model Airfield in Munich, Bayern, Germany.
Where the maximum speed of a racing drone is concerned, on July 27, 2016, George Matus, Jr., of Salt Lake City, manufacturer of the Teal drone, used a production unit to fly at top speed of 85 mph. One year later, on July 13, 2017, a 1.75-lb (0.8-kg) quadcopter, RacerX, hand-built by a Drone Racing League team led by Rian Gury, became the fastest drone in the world when it hit a top speed of 179.78 mph (288.6 kph), although it was timed at an official average speed of 165.2 mph (265.87 kph) over a 100-meter distance at Cunningham Park golf course in Queens, upstate New York, observed by the Guinness Book of World Records. Its rotors were spinning at up to 46,000 rpm, creating a high-pitched whine. The Drone Racing League reported that prototypes actually burst into flames when hitting its highest point of acceleration due to the amount of power used.
On Thursday, March 23, 2017, taking off from the Dinslaken Schwarze Heide airfield, Walter Extra piloted his 330LE aircraft to a top speed of around 337.50 kph (209.7 mph) over a distance of three kilometers—13.48 kph (8.38 mph) faster than the previous record, set by Chip Yates in 2013. The World Air Sports Federation (FAI) officially recognized the record flight in the category “Electric airplanes with a take-off weight less than 1,000 kilograms.” In a slightly modified configuration with an overall weight exceeding one metric ton, test pilot Walter Kampsmann then flew 330LE to a speed of 342.86 kph (213.04 mph).
In October 2017, the author received the following communication from Chip Yates:
The electric Long-EZ is preparing for test flights in November/December and will be attempting 10 new world records, capturing back a number of records that Siemens took from us recently! I am building also a new electric plane capable of 350 mph and intend to be the first person to break 200 [done], 300, 400, 500, 600 and the speed of sound. I purchased and own 1 megawatt of electric motors, which is 4 × 250kW liquid-cooled custom motors for my record breaking. I also own a 700 volt battery pack for the planes that is over 65 kWh. I have built what we think is the world’s most powerful electric test stand, running at ½ megawatt turning 2 contra rotating 3 bladed propellers at my company Yates Electrospace Corporation. We should start test flying in December up in the Mojave Desert.