Electric aircraft at Oshkosh

Here's a waycool thing. For a couple years I've seen little bits about developments for electric aircraft .. of course most of it is the rise of UAV's being utilized by the military nowadays.. but this is a human piloted airplane being shown at the yearly Oshkosh fly-in event..

http://www.airventure.org/2008/8sun3/electra_flyer.html

It's a small airplane, one seater. The battery pack is "lithium polymer" and gives 1 hour of flying time (or so) and can recharge quickly.

I've got earlier coverage on my web site ...

Sonex Aircraft, LLC and AeroConversions Unveil E-Flight Initiative for Sport Aircraft Alternative Energy Research & Development

http://www.7gen.com/topics/electric-ultralight-aircraft

A month or so ago I was at a professional conference about running online community. Some of the people attending were running huge communities such as the forums related to some online video games (don't remember the name).

Anyway this one pair of guys had badges saying "Experimental Aircraft Association". I'd mentioned I do EV's and run this forum about EV's and that got a bunch of people talking to me about EV's ... including a lady from Consumer Union who said that on their forum people were starting to ask whether the EMF emissions from hybrid cars might be damaging like how cell phone radiation is damaging. Hmm..

Anyway the EAA guy asked me if I'd known about these electric airplanes. Since I'd read about last years reports, yes, I did know a bit.

He was also amused to learn of "the other EAA" .. because, the Electric Auto Association also uses the initials 'EAA'.