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Airbus got beat to the punch on English Channel Electric Flight

Soumis
 
Hours before the much anticipated Airbus E-Fan flight, a FenchMan in an Electric Cri Cri flew from Calais to Dover, landed and came back to fetch the 1,000 pound award offered by an English newspaper. (abcnews.go.com) Plus d'info...

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skyhawkrg
skyhawkrg 11
Why are we getting excited about an electric plane flying the English Channel when another just flew from Japan to Hawaii.
joelwiley
joel wiley 5
Airbus says they did it first accusing that the Cri Cri launched from an aircraft. Appears the French Aviation authorities would not allow the Cri Cri to take off, so he was towed like a glider. Hmmm, wonder why he couldn't get clearance.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/10/airbus-french-pilot-first-electric-flight-channel
mpradel
Marcus Pradel 2
AB will probably also protest the Boeing X1 Sound-Barrier record since it didn't take off on it's own power either!
arvdtogt
But the first flight of an electric aircraft over the English Chanel happened more than 30 years ago.
Two years after the Gossamer Albatross crossed the channel under pedal power an solar-electric version of the aircraft made the crossing.
In fact the Solar Challenger stayed in the air for five hours and 23 minutes and covered 163 miles on a flight from Pontois-Cormeilles Aerodrome to RAF Manston.
That flight happened almost 34 years to the day (July 7, 1981) before the dust-up over bragging rights for the conquering of the Channel erupted between Airbus and two other cross-channel efforts.
The Solar Challenger didn't have batteries at all. More than 16,000 solar cells provided the power. History will judge who "won" this competition.
joelwiley
joel wiley 2
That did not count for two reasons.
1. It did not have batteries.
2. It was not Airbus.
(From the gospel according to Airbus)
TorstenHoff
Torsten Hoff 3
I'm sure people said the same thing when Blériot did it.
TorstenHoff
Torsten Hoff 0
(That was supposed to be a reply to linbb)

elcockm
elcockm 1
that is what airbus deserve always want to be first
wopri
Sorry, I posted a duplicate. After carefully checking, your squawk did not show up and I posted mine.
linbb
linbb -3
And when they finally figure out how to make it viable like a recip or turbine powered AC let me know. Until then its just a concept that might work one day.
sueridge307
sueridge307 -4
Airbus will use any excuse lucky they never went deep sea diving they love that. AF is there best contender for that
wopri
Wolfgang Prigge -1
(Duplicate Squawk Submitted)

Airbus E-Fan electric plane gets beaten on first Channel crossing

A tiny one seater airplane piloted by aFrench stunt pilot crossed the Channel a few hours before the E-Fan by Airbus.

Here's the Airbus flight video:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11729838/Airbus-E-Fan-2.0-set-to-recreate-aviation-history-with-cross-Channel-flight-only-this-time-its-electric.html
andyc852
I believe the earlier flight was launched from another aircraft and did not take off unassisted.
mpradel
Marcus Pradel 4
It appears the French would not give it a departure clearance, so they had to 'sneak' it off the ground..

But it Did Land at the other side and return unassisted. No?

To earn the full respect and recognition of any Aeronautical Recording bodies, AB should've made this a round trip as well.
andyc852
Ah. Did not know it went from France to the UK. Thought they both went from UK to France
preacher1
preacher1 1
Airbus went from UK to France.; Duvall made round trip from Calais to Dover and back. It doesn't say if he landed at Dover or not.
RECOR10
RECOR10 -1
I have traveled the world (and my grandfather has something seeded in me). While in the US - we hate the French. (something about surrender monkeys). But, hey, he was there in 1943 I wasnt.
bdunnigan73
bdunnigan73 1
Wouldn't he have been there in June '44 onwards? Or was he not part of Overlord but something else?
preacher1
preacher1 -1
They have tried to gloss over all that, hoping people will die off and forget. Problem is, there are still some of us old farts around. Maybe not that old but we were good listeners to our elders.

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