You do need fuel, but it comes in the form of electricity generated by coal, gas or nuclear power. There is nothing even close to the energy density of a gallon of AvGas. And as you fly that SR22, over time it’s performance gets better because it has burned off that weight of 12 gallons of AvGas and can now fly higher, to drop its fuel consumption and extend its range. Or catch a better tailwind and increase its groundspeed. With a battery powered aircraft, the performance you took off with is what you get until you land. The altitude you initially climbed to is all your going to get. The TAS (true airspeed) you took off with is all you’re going to get for the duration of the flight.
You lucky thing, I have enjoyed trying it in questions and have some many questions about the transitions! I will try and get SITL and Ardupilot to drive it then I can relax
Just took it for a quick spin! Such a cool plane!! FYI: If you have 2 throttles axis you can bind one to "Throttle Vertical" and one to "Throttle Horizontal".
Probably a stupid question, but where can we see how much the batteries are charged? And how can they be re-charged or even charged at all before flight? I managed to fly it, but after a couple of minutes it always seems to loose power.
@@jorn-jorenjorenson5028 look on the Nav display.in the lower left corner there is a Voltage. It starts roughly at 800 and I found that at 600 the motors are cut off.
@@FritzWeinrebe Thank you! Yes, I noticed that little number as well in the meantime. Thought there would be some more obvious batteries indicators somewhere though. Not too unimportant information... : D I assume there are some features still missing for electrical planes in XP12, hopefully they will come in an update soon.
Some quick notes to those not from Vermont. We get a lot of our power from Hydro-Quebec. So, no we do not use coal powered plants here. Burlington Electric uses woodchips to power their electric plant. While some of that is brought in by truck, most is brought in by NECR 500, a 20+ car woodchip train running from Swanton to Burlington 5 days a week. Airport where Beta is located is KBTV, Burlington International.
@@hpharold23 WEIRD.. I thought I already replied to this question... but now I don't see the reply. Anyway, I sim the blades in each of the four cardinal positions to get the advancing, retreating, and cross blades. I do this for helicopters, drones, prop planes.. ALL of them. This is HUGE in what makes helicopters fly, ALSO matters for drone configurations like this plane, and is even what causes p-factor in light planes! Helicopters and drones have MORE speed on the ADVANCING blade, and LESS speed on the RETREATING blade.. helicopters alone (NOT drones or this airplane) change their blade PITCH as the rotors turn, as well. So X-Plane MUST and DOES simulate the blade at multiple locations around the hub as it spins. FOUR locations, as I have it coded now.
@@kenmarchbanks4301 ALMOST! It falls from the sky in the form of sunlight, blows thru the air in the form of wind, and in the case of this airplane, being developed in Vermont where the power comes from Quebec Hydro, jumps from the water is it falls down a hill. So, it is a lot easier than collecting it from trees. Much easier than that. Would be very annoying to go harvest it from trees!
i have to Admire Laminar's step up in the Social Media game this time with X Plane 12, they are showing their experience with there product, and how Flight Dynamics are unrivaled in any sim. I for one thank them for their work.
I seriously love this aircraft.. I wish my father was still alive to see the amazing advancements in technology only since he passed away.. he always told me and the other children that we were very blessed as we would see things in the sky ...!!!! Things man has only dreamed about... He was an amazing man . He knew that were on the cusp of some seriously fantastic inventions being un-serpressed..!!! He was a very intelligent and incredible person whom studied serpressed Inventions which he would often talk to me about. Water powered vehicles and engine's we would often descuss.. and a multitude of Inventions which have been serpressed for obvious reasons.. I always felt excited and would pray to God to help keep him alive so he could see the future... But as life is .. he did see amazing advancements in technology but no matter how much I had prayed to God.. he would still witness man advance ironically quickly throughout his life time.. I would love to see the future ahead.. And we talked about this.. he told me that "nothing is impossible." its only improbable." and it is only improbable because we don't think of it " !!! . I have always loved science fiction.. but now days the line between science fiction and science fact are becoming very blurry !!!! .
You are brilliant and have "camera presence". You are the pioneer of the 64-bit flight sim and I extend my thanks for your knowledge and abilities. Continued success. jw.
Couple of things: 1. I tried to play this in VR, there's noticeable lack of controls in the cockpit. Basically, you can control the joystick and t here's standard flight instruments, but there aren't any way to actually control the engines. 2. Not needing fuel is not quite true, as somewhere there should be a generator pumping in all that electricity. And it runs on fuel. There's a question about flight time, as batteries have lower energy density (in case of helicopters, electric heli by Sikorsky supposedly can fly for 15 minutes compared to 3+ hours of the same model with fuel engine) 3. Why not an autogyro with jump takeoff capabilitiy if the idea is not to have a runway? The vertical rotors are surely going to cause an extra drag during forward flight. In case of autogyro they serve as a wing.
@@meofnz2320 The fuel is burned at the power station and the energy is transferred to the battery, stored for future use. Electric vehicles use the same fuel as gas powered vehicles. Unless it is a coal or nuclear power station.
@@edutter9261 I think you’re slightly missing my point about batteries but nonetheless agree. Unless you consider wind, solar or hydro. Though even in those cases the ultimate fuel source are hydrogen atoms in the sun. I guess you’re implying that EVs are just as polluting as normally powered cars. From what I can deduce looking at all the upstream factors EVs are at least no worse, and usually better. But there’s no free ride.
Brilliant as always. So cool to see the IRL machine and then the XP12 one. This really is an engineering sim first that also excels as escapism for us armchair wannabes and RW pilots who want to stay on top of things.
PS .... What is the "right" / "optimal" height, to start using the "pusher" propeller ? .... What is the "max" SPEED, when flying on ONLY the pusher propeller ? And what would be the "average" range, to fly it, on FULLY charged batteries ?
You should generally get on the pusher ASAP; as Austin mentions, lift rotors are quite inefficient, they draw a lot of power and if you leave them on too long can overheat the battery or lift motors. So get on the pusher as soon as you're clear of the ground, usually. The range is designed to be 250 NM with a 30 minute reserve. That will obviously vary based on a lot of factors, but that's the target.
Will you implement in X-Plane 12 when aircraft is landing or taking off, Lights reflect on Clouds? same in Skymaxx? I think it's the Landing Lights that does that right?
Wow, Just bought X-Plane 12 after years of using X-Plane 11 and discovered this awesome aircraft. Nice Video Austin and I must say, it wasn't that hard to figure out the landing part thanks to my extensive experience with helicopters. :) By the way, speaking of helicopters, the RobinsonR22 flight behaviour is very acurate compared to the real helicopter. I'm so glad I bought XP12...
Interesting question. At least there's more than one, which is all you get with a helicopter. I've no idea what the safety procedures are for helicopters. For fixed wing planes I have some idea so it would be interesting to know what procedures and safety systems exist for VTOLS
Entertaining video - enjoyed! I would personally have preferred that you went with “electric powered” over no “fuel” for obvious reasons (unless you are suggesting that only wind, sun or water would be used to generate the electricity used to charge the batteries). Would love to own one of these some day!
LOL .... Just kidding, *but people, 121 years from now, will laugh at this video ! Just like people did, 121 years ago,* at the Wright Brothers 😉 Just funny to see, how FAST technology is evolving !!! *Just keep up the good work, Austin Meyer ! WE X-Planer's love you !* 🤟👍
And much of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels, and that will be the case for many years to come. One can't spin a society as large as ours on a dime. Converting to other energy sources will take significant time, and yes, even energy itself.
@@quantumac and the way to start is to move away from direct use of the fuel itself. If that move isn't started then the "takes significant time" becomes "it will never happen"
@@bruceyboy7349 Even if tomorrow the US government said "yeah, we lied, Roswell was thing" and "we reverse engineered inexpensive Zero-Point-Energy generators", it would still take a while to build the infrastructure and shift over to the new energy source. Most importantly, it would take inexpensive existing energy sources to do it. This is why it makes no sense to artificially make fossil fuels more expensive now, as our current global leaders have done, resulting in massive inflation. We need to keep fossil fuels cheap WHILE converting over to alternate sources. It also won't ever happen if we can't afford to make it happen.
@@quantumac Okay. Lots of nice points there that are completely irrelevant to what I said but, hey, if you've got something to get off your chest then go for it.
@@hpharold23 So what you are saying is that the lift produced by each rotor blade is not based on Austin's blade element theory calculations? X-plane is build on blade element theory. Why would this be any different?
Is there a prototype that uses could use hydrogen in the future when it’s available nation wide ? Has the company ever considered swappable battery packs for the vehicle which could. Reduce charging time and battery maintenance? thank you sir it’s an excellent vehicle
Yes. This plane is made to have swappable battery packs right from the outset. Batteries are getting better at 8% per year. So, let's say the battery pack wears out in 5 years. OK. No problem. Swap it out with a new battery pack with the latest tech and: Boom, MORE range than when the plane was new.
Why are they not using the top blades in drag like a gyrocopter? They can provide lift, they could reduce the wing by a lot and have the same profile drag. In fact, if the rotors were big enough you wouldn’t need wings.
Electricity is the fuel. Nothing runs without fuel. And if you are in the US, this electricity was generated by burning coal in 84% of the cases. On a Cesna if I run out of querosene, I can glide back to the ground. What about this one?
@@austinmeyer Well, maybe not a hill but a really long pipe and, the beauty of the system, unlike other hydro generating areas (Hoover dam etc) is that Quebec's rivers come from James bay which is tied to the Arctic Ocean which ties into the Atlantic Ocean... Global warming will "Help" with electrical generation as the oceans rise.
@@philnelson2364 So you're saying the rivers flow FROM James Bay at sea level? To where? A big hole in the ground below sea level? And then what? Back into the Atlantic Ocean at sea level?
In Vermont we get power from Quebec Hydro. That's hydroelectric dams capturing the energy from water falling down the hill. So that is how we charge the batteries on the airplane. At my house, I have solar panels. So I charge my tesla from the sun. Do those things answer your question?
If the front two vertical lift engine’s could be tilted forward, you would have 3 horizontal engines propelling the aircraft forward. Even better if the rear horizontal could be configured down as well you could potentially have 5 engines driving aircraft forward.
So, it STILL REQUIRES FUEL. Electricity stored in a battery is still fuel! And to make that electricity some other type(s) of fuel are required. But it does look interesting. What is it's glide ratio if the battery fails?
Is that real aerodynamics? How’d they get the airfoil and shape into xplane? Is that something we can experiment with? For real airfoil design.? I’d actually love to have something like that for boats and hulls. Anyone have any ideas?😊
Now take 2 fuel cells from two Toyota Mirai hydrogen cars and the fuel tanks. Estimated range is easy to compute. Cut the battery pack to 10%. Mount the tanks underneath the battery. From tests with smaller drones the range is usually 3 times battery range alone.
I don't understand the statement:"we don't need fuel"...does it glide? Is it so light to work as a glider? Its proportions would suggest it doesn't...?
Those kind of videos are really well done! Good job, LR! According to Austins final words: The question is not, how to LAND this aircraft (spot landings are quite easy if you have experience with helicopters), but the question is how to CHARGE this aircraft? "Weight & Balance" settings, where I can usually set the amount of fuel by slider(s), are useless for electrical aircrafts. So any hints for charging are really appreciated. Thank you!
I wonder how Beta aircraft deal with thermal runaway in the batteries. This is an event of thermal instability of the batteries, needing to release tons of heat, gases and fire.
No the science of cell phones is helping aviation move a little faster would be a better way to put it. Aviation paid no attention to gyro technology or electronic power until cell phones dropped the price of lithium technology. It will be interesting to see cause autonomous vehicles are making better progress and people still may favor taking a self driving car long distance or commuting rather then a flying vehicle.
So, I tried landing this aircraft. Landing with just the pusher rotor did not pan out. I had to use the lifting rotors to assist with a smoother and safer landing. Anyone else? An observation -- I could not get this aircraft to run for over 30 mins; it ran out of "battery". How is that possible? Or was that time limit expected? Addl. Edit: I looked up a couple of EVTOLs (on youtube) and it seems to confirm that the battery life of this aircraft in XP12 is about as realistic as it can get. Actually, most of the ones that are currently at the prototype stage give out about 10 to 15mins of flying time.
I was under the impression quadricopters big enough to carry humans were inherently unstable due to the large rotational momentum of the rotors making response to pitch and roll forces sluggish. I'd have to see a full scale working model to be convinced this is practical.
One big issue: For safety, government require at lease enough fuel to land at a second airport plus 45 minutes. That might turn out to be 60 minutes reserve fuel. This aircraft can only fly for 20 minutes total. So by design, unsafe. Because nothing else is possible with an electric aircraft even with the best technology available today.
@@austinmeyer Thank you. Not so much worried structurally though - my concern: Is there enough power should a strike cause a prop/fan or fan motor failure? And performance if there were a motor failure?
@@brothersar5957 There is redundancy on each lift motor, so it would take multiple failures to take out a corner. Even with a corner out if you're above a certain height you should be able to use the pusher to get on the wing, and then go find an airport or field and land conventionally. If you're below that height, you might have a rough landing, but it should be survivable.
@@brothersar5957 The exact design hasn't been announced publicly, since the design is still being iterated on, but it will involve redundancy. You can actually see it if you look closely in the hover video; there are two separate inverters on each side of the lift motors, providing two independent power paths. That video was with a previous gen motor, the final cert design will be a newer generation, but it will also be redundant. Certification of an aircraft involves a failure mode effects analysis, which determines what kinds of failures are catastrophic, hazardous, major, or minor, and assigns maximum probabilities for each failure mode based on their effects; and then a probabilistic risk assessment to determine given individual part failures and standard failure rates, what the probability is of combinations of those failures leading to one of those effects, to ensure that the probability is low enough. Given that loss of control in a critical phase of flight could be quite hazardous, there is a very low failure probability target, and pretty much the only way to get there is via redundancy. There are also requirements to demonstrate safety in the event of bird strike; the size of bird you're required to survive is lower for a smaller aircraft like this than a big commercial jet, so don't go flying into any turkeys, but it should be able to survive the most common bird strikes. And you know, even a big jet sometime can't survive a bad enough bird strike, see Sully, but he was able to glide to safety. Alia has the additional redundancy of the pusher motor and can act as a decent glider, so can do a horizontal landing in an emergency if one the lift motors is badly damaged.
This plane is plane is made in Vermont, where we get our power from Quebic Hydro: It’s water falling down a hill. Also, solar power prices are falling rapidly, and renewable energy suprassed coal… in 2019. So hydro and solar power much of the grid, and renewables are increasing their share daily. And new, passively-cooled nuclear reactors are now being demonstrated as well… the list goes on and on.
Lilum seems to be a better eVTOL concept, the problem I see with this prototype is that it carries unused propulsion on the lifting rotors while on horizontal flight. Lilum uses all it's propulsion elements all the time. Cool and beautiful aircraft though.
Look at history. Battery chemistry keeps changing. Each step-change in battery density is from switching to a better materials and chemistry. It happens more often than every 10 years. First it was lead-acid, then NiCAD, then Nickel metal hydride, then Li-Ion, each better than the last as we find better chemistries. So history says we will be PAST Li-Ions when we discover... whatever comes next.
@@austinmeyer I just thought of something, Lithium Phosphate is only good to 0 degrees celcius whereas Lithium Oxide is good to -20 Celcius. Wonder if they'll come up with another variant to allow up to -40 celcius (2 degrees loss for every 1000 feet) so it might have a problem in colder climates like Vermont or Canada (Except British Columbia)
Look on Beta's website, there's a map of existing and planned chargers. I guess they are not in X-Plane12 yet though. Hopefully there is, or will be a library item we can add to which ever airport we want. The map only shows the US but there should be nothing to stop you dotting them all over Europe, or wherever you like to fly.
Just like an electric car, they still need fuel: uranium, coal, nat gas or oil.. In some cases they could use falling water.. Very few will use sunlight stored in the batteries.
I think we are publishing 250 nautical miles as the TARGET range, and publish that we HAVE ALREADY achieved that with the LIFT rotors NOT installed. And batteries get better at 8% per year, soooooo...........
@@austinmeyer 250 NM.. Wow! Is that with max weight? Who needs gas/Jet fuel... Other specs: Max weight, Pax, Cargo - You know, the standard stuff (Not that I could afford the real thing so, good thing we have X-plane) Thanks!
@@philnelson2364 dont worry: you'll never NEED to afford this plane, and neither will i. This plane will be expensive to purchase but extremely cheap to operate since it has almost no moving parts, no fuel consumption, no turbines. So the airplane will be expensive but the operation of it will be cheap. What that means is it only makes sense to have one if you were using it constantly. That is not me, and that is not you. That is a fleet operator that has a whole fleet of these things that are constantly working like flying Uber's. all you pay for is the ride, and since so many people ride, that expensive acquisition cost is distributed amongst many customers and the ride price will not be too high. Some people would look at the cost of helicopters and say that since helicopters are expensive airplanes like this will be expensive. But they ignore the fact that this airplane doesn't use fuel, or have a turbine engine, which are incredibly expensive to purchase, maintain, and overhaul. so as far as the acquisition price: leave that to the fleet operator. When you are ready for a ride you'll just whip out your phone and ask for it and be ready to throw down a small fee for the trip. So this is what the future looks like: it is not a flying cars in every garage. Instead, it is airplanes that could never be on the road owned by fleet operators that carry you around cheaply and cleanly... in three dimensions that are completely available instead of the one dimension we get on the road: so with a proper air traffic control system, traffic will not be a thing
Wow I got to do a video on this. this question was so good it calls for more information than a RUclips comment. I will make that one of my next videos
@@austinmeyer Now there's a true savings that will be available, great for those quick jaunts from a high-rise office building straight to the airport which would eliminate high cost helicopters and I wonder if it's weight would be reduced from that of a helicopter. Other question marks are: Engine TBOs as well as other parts like propellers etc. Wonder if the FAA has to look into this unless that already have specs set up. Also of interest might be the cost of an engine. So many variables, so many questions. In any case, will be interesting to see them around town.
If the motor glider has a gas-burning engine, then that engine runs at about 15% to 20% efficiency. Electric drive-trains, such as this one, run at 90% to 95% efficiency. So ALIA has a 5x to 7x advantage due to the propulsive system! So the motor glider AERO is better, but the engine: FACE-PALM. Factor them BOTH in, and the motor-glider would need about 6x the aero efficiency of ALIA just to MATCH ALIA. Do motor gliders have that? NOPE!!! So motor gliders have the right aero, but unless electric, they have the wrong motor.
A helicopter has a cyclic and collective to adjust the rotor pitch as it flies. Alia does not have those, and it literally stops the rotors in flight and flies on the wing.
@@jaimelopez4445 OO! Good question!!!! There MUST be yaw control. But HOW do we get it? The system is FLY BY WIRE... so the interface can be... ANYTHING. Because this is a fly-by-wire interface there is zero control deflection or control force needed: We can set it up any way we like. Right NOW, it is looking like we will go with a TWIST on the STICK... JUST LIKE THE LOGITECH IN THE VIDEO!! :-O
Keep an eye on your battery! Was wondering why I was falling out the sky like a brick when trying to land. Would be nice if this was gas powered instead.
You do need fuel, but it comes in the form of electricity generated by coal, gas or nuclear power. There is nothing even close to the energy density of a gallon of AvGas. And as you fly that SR22, over time it’s performance gets better because it has burned off that weight of 12 gallons of AvGas and can now fly higher, to drop its fuel consumption and extend its range. Or catch a better tailwind and increase its groundspeed. With a battery powered aircraft, the performance you took off with is what you get until you land. The altitude you initially climbed to is all your going to get. The TAS (true airspeed) you took off with is all you’re going to get for the duration of the flight.
I love getting to see the Alia fly all the time in person :)
You lucky thing, I have enjoyed trying it in questions and have some many questions about the transitions! I will try and get SITL and Ardupilot to drive it then I can relax
amazing the difference between 4 large lifting rotors and one small pushing prop. Really brings home how much more efficient a regular wing is.
Just took it for a quick spin! Such a cool plane!!
FYI: If you have 2 throttles axis you can bind one to "Throttle Vertical" and one to "Throttle Horizontal".
Probably a stupid question, but where can we see how much the batteries are charged? And how can they be re-charged or even charged at all before flight?
I managed to fly it, but after a couple of minutes it always seems to loose power.
Wow, you are a genius.
@@jorn-jorenjorenson5028 look on the Nav display.in the lower left corner there is a Voltage. It starts roughly at 800 and I found that at 600 the motors are cut off.
@@FritzWeinrebe Thank you! Yes, I noticed that little number as well in the meantime. Thought there would be some more obvious batteries indicators somewhere though. Not too unimportant information... : D
I assume there are some features still missing for electrical planes in XP12, hopefully they will come in an update soon.
@@jorn-jorenjorenson5028 pleasure. Yes I hope so too. Probably they are working on it since it is still a Beta.
Some quick notes to those not from Vermont.
We get a lot of our power from Hydro-Quebec. So, no we do not use coal powered plants here. Burlington Electric uses woodchips to power their electric plant. While some of that is brought in by truck, most is brought in by NECR 500, a 20+ car woodchip train running from Swanton to Burlington 5 days a week.
Airport where Beta is located is KBTV, Burlington International.
I always enjoy Austin's enthusiasm for anything aviation.
Me too, Austin is a great story teller.
So, its not simulating each blades as invidual wings producing lift? This is scripted base not a real time simulation.
@@hpharold23 WEIRD.. I thought I already replied to this question... but now I don't see the reply. Anyway, I sim the blades in each of the four cardinal positions to get the advancing, retreating, and cross blades. I do this for helicopters, drones, prop planes.. ALL of them. This is HUGE in what makes helicopters fly, ALSO matters for drone configurations like this plane, and is even what causes p-factor in light planes!
Helicopters and drones have MORE speed on the ADVANCING blade, and LESS speed on the RETREATING blade.. helicopters alone (NOT drones or this airplane) change their blade PITCH as the rotors turn, as well. So X-Plane MUST and DOES simulate the blade at multiple locations around the hub as it spins. FOUR locations, as I have it coded now.
So electricity just grows on trees and doesn’t require any fuel?
@@kenmarchbanks4301 ALMOST! It falls from the sky in the form of sunlight, blows thru the air in the form of wind, and in the case of this airplane, being developed in Vermont where the power comes from Quebec Hydro, jumps from the water is it falls down a hill.
So, it is a lot easier than collecting it from trees. Much easier than that. Would be very annoying to go harvest it from trees!
Just installed XP12 and took the Alia for a spin in VR. Absolutely brilliant.
Hi, may I ask where to find/buy the Alia 250 and try it on XP12?
Thanks Austin. Great stuff as always....
i have to Admire Laminar's step up in the Social Media game this time with X Plane 12, they are showing their experience with there product, and how Flight Dynamics are unrivaled in any sim. I for one thank them for their work.
Are you still working for Laminar? :)
@@masdeca haha i wish. just a scenery dev.
@@emmabentley7945 I was really convinced that you actually worked for them. Sorry to have turned that knife in the wound (italian way of saying). XD
I seriously love this aircraft.. I wish my father was still alive to see the amazing advancements in technology only since he passed away.. he always told me and the other children that we were very blessed as we would see things in the sky ...!!!! Things man has only dreamed about... He was an amazing man . He knew that were on the cusp of some seriously fantastic inventions being un-serpressed..!!! He was a very intelligent and incredible person whom studied serpressed Inventions which he would often talk to me about. Water powered vehicles and engine's we would often descuss.. and a multitude of Inventions which have been serpressed for obvious reasons.. I always felt excited and would pray to God to help keep him alive so he could see the future... But as life is .. he did see amazing advancements in technology but no matter how much I had prayed to God.. he would still witness man advance ironically quickly throughout his life time.. I would love to see the future ahead.. And we talked about this.. he told me that "nothing is impossible." its only improbable." and it is only improbable because we don't think of it " !!! . I have always loved science fiction.. but now days the line between science fiction and science fact are becoming very blurry !!!! .
You are brilliant and have "camera presence". You are the pioneer of the 64-bit flight sim and I extend my thanks for your knowledge and abilities. Continued success. jw.
Couple of things:
1. I tried to play this in VR, there's noticeable lack of controls in the cockpit. Basically, you can control the joystick and t here's standard flight instruments, but there aren't any way to actually control the engines.
2. Not needing fuel is not quite true, as somewhere there should be a generator pumping in all that electricity. And it runs on fuel. There's a question about flight time, as batteries have lower energy density (in case of helicopters, electric heli by Sikorsky supposedly can fly for 15 minutes compared to 3+ hours of the same model with fuel engine)
3. Why not an autogyro with jump takeoff capabilitiy if the idea is not to have a runway? The vertical rotors are surely going to cause an extra drag during forward flight. In case of autogyro they serve as a wing.
The eVTOL still requires fuel. It is just called a battery. It is super cool that this is in X-Plane.
It requires *energy*. It used to be fuel, but now can be electrons and protons stored in a battery.
The battery is actually the fuel tank. The fuel is the energy that is stored in the fuel tank.
Fuel by definition is “a material used to produce heat or power by burning”.
A battery stores energy. Fuel is consumed chemically to produce energy.
@@meofnz2320 The fuel is burned at the power station and the energy is transferred to the battery, stored for future use. Electric vehicles use the same fuel as gas powered vehicles. Unless it is a coal or nuclear power station.
@@edutter9261
I think you’re slightly missing my point about batteries but nonetheless agree. Unless you consider wind, solar or hydro. Though even in those cases the ultimate fuel source are hydrogen atoms in the sun.
I guess you’re implying that EVs are just as polluting as normally powered cars. From what I can deduce looking at all the upstream factors EVs are at least no worse, and usually better. But there’s no free ride.
Brilliant as always. So cool to see the IRL machine and then the XP12 one. This really is an engineering sim first that also excels as escapism for us armchair wannabes and RW pilots who want to stay on top of things.
Austin! Thanks for coming to The Green Mountain State
You should add a sling to the game.
I learned how to fly one and they are powerful and good for flight training.
Sling 4 TSi
@@oorheart I don’t know how to use plane maker 😅
PS .... What is the "right" / "optimal" height, to start using the "pusher" propeller ? .... What is the "max" SPEED, when flying on ONLY the pusher propeller ? And what would be the "average" range, to fly it, on FULLY charged batteries ?
You should generally get on the pusher ASAP; as Austin mentions, lift rotors are quite inefficient, they draw a lot of power and if you leave them on too long can overheat the battery or lift motors. So get on the pusher as soon as you're clear of the ground, usually.
The range is designed to be 250 NM with a 30 minute reserve. That will obviously vary based on a lot of factors, but that's the target.
OH, WOW! Austin's done it again! (LOL) So glad I added this channel! Thanks, X Plane!
Will you implement in X-Plane 12 when aircraft is landing or taking off, Lights reflect on Clouds? same in Skymaxx? I think it's the Landing Lights that does that right?
Wow, Just bought X-Plane 12 after years of using X-Plane 11 and discovered this awesome aircraft.
Nice Video Austin and I must say, it wasn't that hard to figure out the landing part thanks to my extensive experience with helicopters. :)
By the way, speaking of helicopters, the RobinsonR22 flight behaviour is very acurate compared to the real helicopter. I'm so glad I bought XP12...
What happens if one of the rotors fails during takeoff or landing? Any chance of recovery?
Interesting question. At least there's more than one, which is all you get with a helicopter. I've no idea what the safety procedures are for helicopters. For fixed wing planes I have some idea so it would be interesting to know what procedures and safety systems exist for VTOLS
Look under the Failures page. See if you can fail a motor. Then try it in XP12. X-Plane shines in what you can fail and the way it is simulated.
Entertaining video - enjoyed! I would personally have preferred that you went with “electric powered” over no “fuel” for obvious reasons (unless you are suggesting that only wind, sun or water would be used to generate the electricity used to charge the batteries). Would love to own one of these some day!
LOL .... Just kidding, *but people, 121 years from now, will laugh at this video ! Just like people did, 121 years ago,* at the Wright Brothers 😉
Just funny to see, how FAST technology is evolving !!! *Just keep up the good work, Austin Meyer ! WE X-Planer's love you !* 🤟👍
The one advantage they have, range. You can actually go somewhere in a reasonable amount of time.
It still requires "FUEL", electricity may be that fuel, but it's still fuel.
But you also know what he meant
And much of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels, and that will be the case for many years to come. One can't spin a society as large as ours on a dime. Converting to other energy sources will take significant time, and yes, even energy itself.
@@quantumac and the way to start is to move away from direct use of the fuel itself. If that move isn't started then the "takes significant time" becomes "it will never happen"
@@bruceyboy7349 Even if tomorrow the US government said "yeah, we lied, Roswell was thing" and "we reverse engineered inexpensive Zero-Point-Energy generators", it would still take a while to build the infrastructure and shift over to the new energy source. Most importantly, it would take inexpensive existing energy sources to do it. This is why it makes no sense to artificially make fossil fuels more expensive now, as our current global leaders have done, resulting in massive inflation. We need to keep fossil fuels cheap WHILE converting over to alternate sources. It also won't ever happen if we can't afford to make it happen.
@@quantumac Okay. Lots of nice points there that are completely irrelevant to what I said but, hey, if you've got something to get off your chest then go for it.
Been at Beta! Cool place! Cool simulator they have!
whats their airport ICAO code?
KBTV
Love flying you around in the Citation X Austin. Lol ... Just noticed you were the passenger today while flying the X
You need fuel to produce electrcity to charge the bateries. Unless you have your own solar or wind system at home.
Which, in fact, for my Tesla, I do!
@@austinmeyer , Good to know it, but 99.9% of the world is way far from this perfect scenario you have. Wind or solar or both you have?
@@sempreame luckily, not true!. The grid is more than 0.1% renewable. Therefore less than 99.9% of the world is polluting.
You can easily research this yourself, of course…
@@austinmeyer , Ok. Sorry. My source of information is out of date. Greetings from Rio!😀
How’s the ice protection ???
Thanks for sharing this video and this revolutionary aircraft with us through the sim. Im mind-blown
So, its not simulating each blades as invidual wings producing lift? This is scripted base not a real time simulation.
@@hpharold23 So what you are saying is that the lift produced by each rotor blade is not based on Austin's blade element theory calculations? X-plane is build on blade element theory. Why would this be any different?
Is there a prototype that uses could use hydrogen in the future when it’s available nation wide ? Has the company ever considered swappable battery packs for the vehicle which could. Reduce charging time and battery maintenance? thank you sir it’s an excellent vehicle
Yes. This plane is made to have swappable battery packs right from the outset. Batteries are getting better at 8% per year. So, let's say the battery pack wears out in 5 years. OK. No problem. Swap it out with a new battery pack with the latest tech and: Boom, MORE range than when the plane was new.
My first Tesla went 300 miles... my wifes new Lucid goes almost 600. Battery tech is skyrocketing. We're at the tipping point now.
I was struggling getting this thing up to speed, didn't know I had to assign the pusher, thought it did it automatically at some point
Thank you for your contribution to the field, history will be kind to you dear pioneer 🙏🏾
Why are they not using the top blades in drag like a gyrocopter? They can provide lift, they could reduce the wing by a lot and have the same profile drag. In fact, if the rotors were big enough you wouldn’t need wings.
5:30 That seemed a bit abrupt. Maybe just the adjacent camera angle.
Thankyou Austin great video looking forward to more of them
Electricity is the fuel. Nothing runs without fuel. And if you are in the US, this electricity was generated by burning coal in 84% of the cases. On a Cesna if I run out of querosene, I can glide back to the ground. What about this one?
Vermont, where this plane is currently based, gets its power from Quebec Hydro. So this airplane is powered by: Water falling down a hill.
@@austinmeyer Well, maybe not a hill but a really long pipe and, the beauty of the system, unlike other hydro generating areas (Hoover dam etc) is that Quebec's rivers come from James bay which is tied to the Arctic Ocean which ties into the Atlantic Ocean... Global warming will "Help" with electrical generation as the oceans rise.
Yes, this plane can glide to the ground; it is designed to have a high lift to drag ratio, just like a glider, better than a Cessna.
@@philnelson2364 So you're saying the rivers flow FROM James Bay at sea level? To where? A big hole in the ground below sea level? And then what? Back into the Atlantic Ocean at sea level?
X-plane is pushing the bar! in my opinion it's the real pilot's sim of choice.
This eVTOL is a lot of fun to fly around in and it has enough charge to get to places.
Hell yea, looking forward to trying this thing out. Controllers on PE might be confused lol
I don't see any of the top rotor blades in the video when this plane is flying in the beginning. Hmmm.
Not any fuel?
How do you charge your batteries in the US?
How do you produce electricity?
Vermont uses Quebec Hydro - perfectly clean,
In Vermont we get power from Quebec Hydro. That's hydroelectric dams capturing the energy from water falling down the hill. So that is how we charge the batteries on the airplane. At my house, I have solar panels. So I charge my tesla from the sun. Do those things answer your question?
Fantastic, can’t wait to try
If the front two vertical lift engine’s could be tilted forward, you would have 3 horizontal engines propelling the aircraft forward. Even better if the rear horizontal could be configured down as well you could potentially have 5 engines driving aircraft forward.
So, it STILL REQUIRES FUEL. Electricity stored in a battery is still fuel! And to make that electricity some other type(s) of fuel are required. But it does look interesting. What is it's glide ratio if the battery fails?
Is that real aerodynamics? How’d they get the airfoil and shape into xplane? Is that something we can experiment with? For real airfoil design.? I’d actually love to have something like that for boats and hulls. Anyone have any ideas?😊
Loving these videos Mr Austin.
You Sir...are a LEGEND👍👍👏👏
Now take 2 fuel cells from two Toyota Mirai hydrogen cars and the fuel tanks. Estimated range is easy to compute. Cut the battery pack to 10%. Mount the tanks underneath the battery. From tests with smaller drones the range is usually 3 times battery range alone.
Beautiful ! Thanks Austin!!!
I don't understand the statement:"we don't need fuel"...does it glide? Is it so light to work as a glider? Its proportions would suggest it doesn't...?
Will this setup work in X-P11? Or it`s a new feature of 12?
BTW / Question ....... Would't it be better, if it also, have an propeller at the FRONT ?
Would block the view of the pad in landing. You want the kind of visibility you get in a helicopter. So the pusher works best in this application.
Can't wait to give it a go. Looks like fun !!
Where can I find these recharge stations (in Xplane 12)?
Those kind of videos are really well done! Good job, LR! According to Austins final words: The question is not, how to LAND this aircraft (spot landings are quite easy if you have experience with helicopters), but the question is how to CHARGE this aircraft? "Weight & Balance" settings, where I can usually set the amount of fuel by slider(s), are useless for electrical aircrafts. So any hints for charging are really appreciated. Thank you!
Map a button or key to the recharge function.
I wonder how Beta aircraft deal with thermal runaway in the batteries. This is an event of thermal instability of the batteries, needing to release tons of heat, gases and fire.
Is it in the default list of aircraft in X-plane 12?
yep!
@@XPlaneOfficial Ok I see it now after I reinstalled X-plane.
Batteries are most difficult thing to recycle and can be shorted out by emp or other electrical issues
What is the ICAO code for this aircraft? I wanna fly this on Vatsim 😁
It's really amazing the science of Aviation is moving at a fantastic pace
No the science of cell phones is helping aviation move a little faster would be a better way to put it. Aviation paid no attention to gyro technology or electronic power until cell phones dropped the price of lithium technology. It will be interesting to see cause autonomous vehicles are making better progress and people still may favor taking a self driving car long distance or commuting rather then a flying vehicle.
Yes it’s cool looking plane but what is the range?
How do we relocate the charging pad. I cant find the original airport VT25 is a gass field
Head to KBTV... ramp start at Beta.. it's there.
So, I tried landing this aircraft. Landing with just the pusher rotor did not pan out. I had to use the lifting rotors to assist with a smoother and safer landing. Anyone else?
An observation -- I could not get this aircraft to run for over 30 mins; it ran out of "battery". How is that possible? Or was that time limit expected?
Addl. Edit: I looked up a couple of EVTOLs (on youtube) and it seems to confirm that the battery life of this aircraft in XP12 is about as realistic as it can get. Actually, most of the ones that are currently at the prototype stage give out about 10 to 15mins of flying time.
But, could it still Take-Off from a rolling start, on a runway? And Climb away, on that Pusher Prop's Power?
It has, on almost all flights so far... The HOVERING part is the new part we are just getting started on.
I was under the impression quadricopters big enough to carry humans were inherently unstable due to the large rotational momentum of the rotors making response to pitch and roll forces sluggish. I'd have to see a full scale working model to be convinced this is practical.
Pro tip: figure out how to land BEFORE you take off!
I wonder how much flying time or miles you get before recharging
2.5 hours, demonstrated in flight so far.
@@XPlaneOfficial (250 miles)
3 weeks ago.. and you've got the same exact joystick I was using... at least 10 years ago, maybe 15
One big issue: For safety, government require at lease enough fuel to land at a second airport plus 45 minutes. That might turn out to be 60 minutes reserve fuel. This aircraft can only fly for 20 minutes total. So by design, unsafe. Because nothing else is possible with an electric aircraft even with the best technology available today.
Is the propusion and lift overbuilt so that if you have a bird strike you can still land under control?
This plane is not that fast... about 100 knots... bird strikes at that speed are not catastrophic to carbon-fiber structures.
@@austinmeyer Thank you. Not so much worried structurally though - my concern: Is there enough power should a strike cause a prop/fan or fan motor failure? And performance if there were a motor failure?
@@brothersar5957 There is redundancy on each lift motor, so it would take multiple failures to take out a corner. Even with a corner out if you're above a certain height you should be able to use the pusher to get on the wing, and then go find an airport or field and land conventionally. If you're below that height, you might have a rough landing, but it should be survivable.
@@unlambda Thank you. Not sure if I've ever heard that oifficially from a manufacturer/project team. Maybe I've missed it. Thank you.
@@brothersar5957 The exact design hasn't been announced publicly, since the design is still being iterated on, but it will involve redundancy. You can actually see it if you look closely in the hover video; there are two separate inverters on each side of the lift motors, providing two independent power paths. That video was with a previous gen motor, the final cert design will be a newer generation, but it will also be redundant.
Certification of an aircraft involves a failure mode effects analysis, which determines what kinds of failures are catastrophic, hazardous, major, or minor, and assigns maximum probabilities for each failure mode based on their effects; and then a probabilistic risk assessment to determine given individual part failures and standard failure rates, what the probability is of combinations of those failures leading to one of those effects, to ensure that the probability is low enough. Given that loss of control in a critical phase of flight could be quite hazardous, there is a very low failure probability target, and pretty much the only way to get there is via redundancy.
There are also requirements to demonstrate safety in the event of bird strike; the size of bird you're required to survive is lower for a smaller aircraft like this than a big commercial jet, so don't go flying into any turkeys, but it should be able to survive the most common bird strikes. And you know, even a big jet sometime can't survive a bad enough bird strike, see Sully, but he was able to glide to safety. Alia has the additional redundancy of the pusher motor and can act as a decent glider, so can do a horizontal landing in an emergency if one the lift motors is badly damaged.
Dont need fuel? The battries charge from magic or .......?
This plane is plane is made in Vermont, where we get our power from Quebic Hydro: It’s water falling down a hill.
Also, solar power prices are falling rapidly, and renewable energy suprassed coal… in 2019.
So hydro and solar power much of the grid, and renewables are increasing their share daily.
And new, passively-cooled nuclear reactors are now being demonstrated as well… the list goes on and on.
Lilum seems to be a better eVTOL concept, the problem I see with this prototype is that it carries unused propulsion on the lifting rotors while on horizontal flight. Lilum uses all it's propulsion elements all the time.
Cool and beautiful aircraft though.
Sad to see us relying so heavy on lithium for storage when experts say we run out of it by 2032 and mining it poisons ground water.
Look at history. Battery chemistry keeps changing. Each step-change in battery density is from switching to a better materials and chemistry. It happens more often than every 10 years. First it was lead-acid, then NiCAD, then Nickel metal hydride, then Li-Ion, each better than the last as we find better chemistries. So history says we will be PAST Li-Ions when we discover... whatever comes next.
@@austinmeyer I sure hope so! Right now we have very little science in action to replace this storage medium.
@@austinmeyer I just thought of something, Lithium Phosphate is only good to 0 degrees celcius whereas Lithium Oxide is good to -20 Celcius. Wonder if they'll come up with another variant to allow up to -40 celcius (2 degrees loss for every 1000 feet) so it might have a problem in colder climates like Vermont or Canada (Except British Columbia)
@@philnelson2364 Unsure... that goes beyond my knowledge.
and your going to fly it to where? how many chargers are going to be where an airstrip isnt
Where will the chargers be? The answer: wherever we put them, of course.
Look on Beta's website, there's a map of existing and planned chargers. I guess they are not in X-Plane12 yet though. Hopefully there is, or will be a library item we can add to which ever airport we want. The map only shows the US but there should be nothing to stop you dotting them all over Europe, or wherever you like to fly.
Last time I saw Austin, he was in early 20's. Haven't used the X-Plane years.
I love all of Austin's videos, he should be a content creator!
Electricity in aviation is a pipe dream for anything with distance/longevity. This plane seems to be more efficient than most at VTOL though.
250 nautical miles has ben demonstrated in flight by the airplane shown in forward flight in this video....
How long is the extension cord
How many Tesla batteries?
Just like an electric car, they still need fuel: uranium, coal, nat gas or oil.. In some cases they could use falling water.. Very few will use sunlight stored in the batteries.
So cool airplane and so fun to fly! Thanks!
Do we have a range for forward flight and time for only vertical flight?
I think we are publishing 250 nautical miles as the TARGET range, and publish that we HAVE ALREADY achieved that with the LIFT rotors NOT installed. And batteries get better at 8% per year, soooooo...........
@@austinmeyer 250 NM.. Wow! Is that with max weight? Who needs gas/Jet fuel...
Other specs: Max weight, Pax, Cargo - You know, the standard stuff (Not that I could afford the real thing so, good thing we have X-plane)
Thanks!
@@philnelson2364 dont worry: you'll never NEED to afford this plane, and neither will i. This plane will be expensive to purchase but extremely cheap to operate since it has almost no moving parts, no fuel consumption, no turbines. So the airplane will be expensive but the operation of it will be cheap. What that means is it only makes sense to have one if you were using it constantly. That is not me, and that is not you. That is a fleet operator that has a whole fleet of these things that are constantly working like flying Uber's. all you pay for is the ride, and since so many people ride, that expensive acquisition cost is distributed amongst many customers and the ride price will not be too high. Some people would look at the cost of helicopters and say that since helicopters are expensive airplanes like this will be expensive. But they ignore the fact that this airplane doesn't use fuel, or have a turbine engine, which are incredibly expensive to purchase, maintain, and overhaul. so as far as the acquisition price: leave that to the fleet operator. When you are ready for a ride you'll just whip out your phone and ask for it and be ready to throw down a small fee for the trip. So this is what the future looks like: it is not a flying cars in every garage. Instead, it is airplanes that could never be on the road owned by fleet operators that carry you around cheaply and cleanly... in three dimensions that are completely available instead of the one dimension we get on the road: so with a proper air traffic control system, traffic will not be a thing
Wow I got to do a video on this. this question was so good it calls for more information than a RUclips comment. I will make that one of my next videos
@@austinmeyer Now there's a true savings that will be available, great for those quick jaunts from a high-rise office building straight to the airport which would eliminate high cost helicopters and I wonder if it's weight would be reduced from that of a helicopter.
Other question marks are: Engine TBOs as well as other parts like propellers etc. Wonder if the FAA has to look into this unless that already have specs set up. Also of interest might be the cost of an engine. So many variables, so many questions. In any case, will be interesting to see them around town.
Brilliant work, thanks for the videos.
So does the thing get 30 minutes of flight time or less?
2.5 hours, right now!
We've flown it for 2.5 hours continuous, so far... batteries getting better at 8% per year, so that will keep coming up...
Holy crap, 2.5 hours with four people in it or more?
@@khcopter Just the test pilot for the.. um... test-flights we are making now.
@@khcopter Yes test pilots only. Because death is probable with this thing.
a legenda não esta funcionando,subtitle is not working
Wheres the Piper Cub, it can do stovl
Piper cub is discussed here: ruclips.net/video/hjTOWpgPqRU/видео.html
How long a full battery lasts on a normal flight?
In the sim the Batteries start at 800 and the motors shut down at 600. I didn't got far.
a motor glider is the most efficient aircraft. Still needs a runway though
If the motor glider has a gas-burning engine, then that engine runs at about 15% to 20% efficiency. Electric drive-trains, such as this one, run at 90% to 95% efficiency. So ALIA has a 5x to 7x advantage due to the propulsive system! So the motor glider AERO is better, but the engine: FACE-PALM. Factor them BOTH in, and the motor-glider would need about 6x the aero efficiency of ALIA just to MATCH ALIA. Do motor gliders have that? NOPE!!! So motor gliders have the right aero, but unless electric, they have the wrong motor.
So where can i get it from? is it included in the latest beta or is it payware?
It is in the latest X-Plane 12 beta. Just run your X-Plane 12 installer now.
@@austinmeyer thank you. Already took it for a ride. Will make a video about it soon
That’s a helicopter Austin
A helicopter has a cyclic and collective to adjust the rotor pitch as it flies. Alia does not have those, and it literally stops the rotors in flight and flies on the wing.
@@austinmeyer it lifts up vertically, it’s a helicopter
@@austinmeyer As per despisted in the sim it has a collective lever but no foot pedals....is it?
@@jaimelopez4445 OO! Good question!!!! There MUST be yaw control. But HOW do we get it? The system is FLY BY WIRE... so the interface can be... ANYTHING. Because this is a fly-by-wire interface there is zero control deflection or control force needed: We can set it up any way we like. Right NOW, it is looking like we will go with a TWIST on the STICK... JUST LIKE THE LOGITECH IN THE VIDEO!! :-O
@@austinmeyer And the collective lever?
Can you do a test for me? I have a design I would like to test.
What is electricity if not fuel?
JUST ......... one word ..................... *AWESOME !!!*
This is awesome!! 😍
Walking down the flightline ignoring how cost has almost exponentially skyrocketed.
Hang on no way, how do you land it lol. Thanks for this video it was really interesting and I love Xplane.
This is a totally different looking thing- so cool
need a hybrid version fuel or electric
Took a few flights with this, nice plane and interior is well done.
Keep an eye on your battery! Was wondering why I was falling out the sky like a brick when trying to land. Would be nice if this was gas powered instead.
See this bird flying quite often, hopefully we never get a fire in the litheam battery storage...
It’s only a matter of time.