With gas prices rising inexorably upwards, interest in electric vehicles is increasing – but while electric bikes are commonplace and electric cars increasingly affordable, how about an electric helicopter? Enter Sikorsky’s Project Firefly.
According to coverage over on Wired, the Firefly is a modified Sikorsky S-300C two-seat trainer helicopter originally designed to run on a 190 horsepower four-cylinder gasoline-based engine – noisy and expensive to run, but it gets you in the air.
Sikorsky’s concept design makes for a more eco-friendly approach to flying, however: by replacing the original gas engine with a 200-horsepower electric motor powered by a bank of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, Sikorsky’s Firefly is not only able to lift off successfully on purely electric power but even has more grunt than ever before.
The inaugral flight of the two-man electric rotorcraft is due at the EAA Airventure show in Oshkosh next week, although Sikorsky claims it has no current plans to mass-produce this particular model. Instead, the company is treating Project Firefly as a “technology demonstrator” which it hopes will improve electric vehicle technology – both ground- and air-based – for all.
Sikorsky’s head of research, Mark Miller, said of the project that “it is exciting to be at the forefront of the exploration of electric propulsion technology for rotorcraft.”
The use of electric motors in full-size helicopters – rather than remote-control toys and unmanned drones, where such things are commonplace – offers a range of advantages over traditional gasoline engines: the Firefly will be much quieter than a traditional rotorcraft, making it well suited to urban use and military reconnaissance; the running costs are far lower than those of a gas-guzzling internal combustion engine; with far fewer emissions, the Firefly is a lot more eco-friendly than the S-300C on which it is based; and with a lower heat output, there is the potential to create ‘stealth’ electric rotorcraft for law enforcement and military use.
Sadly, there are drawbacks to the design too: while lithium-ion batteries – as found in the vast majority of laptops – are energy-dense as batteries go, they fall short of matching gasoline. As a result, Miller warns that the batteries required for the Firefly to take off will weigh significantly more than the full tanks of fuel they replace – resulting in “payload and endurance [falling] short of typical helicopter performance,” despite the increased power of the engine.
Still, for a concept design, Project Firefly holds promise – and demonstrates just how far electric vehicles have progressed in a few short years.
