27 April 2007
Hot on the heels of Boeing’s announcement that it was <a href=’http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=539′ target=’_blank’>to fly an electrically-powered aeroplane</a> comes the news that French company LISA is creating a similarly-powered aircraft.
LISA, you may remember, has created the <a href=’http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=482′ target=’_blank’>Akoya multi-role series</a> of light aircraft, which we reported on last month. The Hy-Bird (no, that’s not a misprint!) is the electric aircraft. Like the Boeing version it’s a motorglider in concept and like the Boeing has two sources of power, although in this case they are solar energy (via photovoltaic cells on the wings and on the horizontal tail) and hydrogen, by means of a fuel cell.
The Hy-Bird was first seen in public at the start of last month at the EVER (enviromental transport) show in Monaco; next year the company hopes to fly it round the world in 15 stages of 3,000 km.
