EAA Sport Aviation - October 2009

his early days in bamboo-and-plastic-sheet hang gliders— and his 35 hang-gliding championships—have sustained his interest in silent flying. When an opportunity came along to get involved with an electric ultralight aircraft, he jumped at the chance.

MEETING OF MINDS

The opportunity arose out of a conversation with Tian Yu at the 2009 AERO Friedrichshafen in Germany. Tian is a private pilot and head of Shanghai-based Yuneec International, which sells power packs for model aircraft. He was in Germany to explore the possibility of entering the manned-aircraft market with his electric motors. Naturally, the pair discussed the viability of using a Yuneec electric motor system on an ultralight aircraft.

Peghiny had just the aircraft: a Flightstar Spyder ultralight. The Flightstar is a mature design, with more than 1,000 made worldwide since 1981. Tian agreed. They would build an e-Spyder suitable for the Yuneec motor system and fly it at Oshkosh—in three months.

But first, Peghiny had to reduce the weight of the aircraft. The 20-kW/26.8-hp motor produced less thrust than the 42- to 48-hp Rotax engines of the conventional Spyder, and it needed two battery packs, each weighing 26. 4 pounds. Those would have to fit within the aircraft’s FAR- 103 regulatory empty-weight limit of 254 pounds.

Peghiny looked everywhere to shave pounds. He incorporated a carbon nose fairing, a lighter windshield, a smaller-diameter chrome-molybdenum cage, lighter main and nose gear, smaller wheels, no brakes (which Peghiny reports as not a problem at all), smaller-diameter