Egregoros

>"We are very excited to bring the marvel of electric flight to a new segment of the market,” Macdonald said. “magniAIR electric engines coupled with our industry-leading Samson batteries can be used for any application currently powered by a 120-175 kW piston engine. Thanks to magniX’s full powertrain, integration is simple and cost effective, bringing electric flight to kit plane builders and enthusiasts.”

Funny how they never mention what the pricing or availability will be, but if all you care about is keeping gullible, low-information investor dollars flowing in, making bullshit appeasing statements like this is all you need to do, facts be damned.

Motor & controller state of the art for practical electric light GA is definately there (has been for a few years), but the batteries that would need to hold the energy required for a 3 hour flight, meet mass, volume and durability requirements are still years, if not decades, away.

Heil Honkler

https://avbrief.com/magnix-targets-light-ga-applications-with-new-electric-motor/

A blade strike with engine running on a direct-drive piston (like a Lycoming, Continental or Titan) is an automatic tear down. I've done a bunch of them. Time consuming and rediculously expensive.

The Rotax 9 series is not direct drive- they use a prop speed reduction unit (PSRU) with an elastomeric connection from the crank to the gearbox (to help absorb torsional vibrations) and a slipper clutch immediately upstream in the PSRU to absorb a strike. Rotaxes typically use low-inertia props, ie, composite or wood, so a prop strike is not traumatic on the main power unit at all. In many cases, it is a borescope inspect of the power unit, changeout of the PSRU and elastomer, then oil samples at 10, 25, 50 and 100 hours after to ensure all is good. Much easier. Quicker and cheaper to do.

Rotax engines are my jam; I was factory-trained in Austria.

Out in the country earlier today testing a project for a client, for large-scale aeromodeling.

A 'faithful reproduction' of a reverse-engineered Shahed-136. Designed on FreeCAD, analyzed with Flow5 (VLM) and OpenFOAM (CFD). This prototype was made over two weeks, including mold production. All manual control on this one, but can use a Pixhawk down the road if automation or FPV control is desired. The machine flew as expected with pleasant flying qualities and exhibited the docile stall behavior you'd expect from a delta wing. Some ATV trimming needed to lower the roll rate but overall, good bird. Ideal for those long-range Minecraft 'special package delivery' missions when that championship series kicks off in due course.

Easy build. If I were to improve anything, I'd taper the aft fuselage to shave off some drag, improve prop efficiency and increase overall range & cruising speed.

I pulled a favor with some of our own operating under deep cover in Hollywood; here is what they know:

In the first episode, they're going to investigate the strange circumstances surrounding the first teleporation experiment on the electrical tower near Tuskeegee University a few years ago, and go question Professor Old School about what happened. (See footage from the actual experiment in Rome, Georgia that inspired the episode below.)

But the entire over-arching plotline will follow Special Agent DeMarius Williams's search for his father, who mysteriously disappeared after going out to grab a pack of Kool's back in 1995.