Since this was filmed electric propulsion has progressed in leaps and there are now inexpensive systems delivering twice the performance and efficiency of their system - the Lazair is a legendary design that almost completely disappeared, makes perfect sense that it be revived and evolved, always had a soft spot for the design. Holy kanolee, 2019 and still no website??
This is amazing! I realize the kit project might be cancelled but nobody can take away what you've accomplished. Beautiful aircraft.Brilliant feat of engineering.
I would love to see how this plane of 7 years compare's today with modern battery packs. There has been a massive jump in battery performance in the last few years I could imagine his stated 2 hour endurance easly doubled, ligher cells and potential performace capabiluty could be huge.
That was very interesting to see , closeups of the motor and battery would have been very useful. It was also interesting to hear of a different lithium battery chemistry...Thanks...Laurie
Looks awesome. You can tell the ground controller at the end of the video isn't used to electrics. He jumped right into the path of the props while the motors were hot.
Correct. Little chain saw type motors. Enough to get airborne and have some fun. The original kit came with "mixed" controls, meaning no separate rudder control. Very easy to fly but crosswinds were a challenge. ;-) I loved that aircraft.
Airborne @ 18mph and land @ 18mph. Anything faster than 60 mph and the leading edge would begin to "oil can" the leading edge was an aluminum covered hard foam d-cell. Very light. It was originally designed as a glider and we used to fly them to the hills and shut down the motors, so we could ridge soar above the slopes. Great fun. Glad to see the design still around and has a (hopefully) new lease on life.
Can solar panels be incorporated into the wings and fuselage? They have the flexible roll up rv/ camping solar that may extend use. For a bit anyway. Especially with powered gliding.
Searching for complete plans and construction manual for the series III or the Elite …. Would love to bring this to the Philippines … any help would be very appreciated … ty
I'm a little confused, FAR 103 puts the weight limit of ultralights at 254 lb. for powered craft and 150 for non-powered craft. Are the Batteries considered "fuel" and therefore not included in the total weight? The maximum amount of fuel allowed is 5 U.S. gallons which would be 30.95 lb of gasoline. If the batteries weight 100 lb, then obviously more than 3 times as much fuel weight.
A small 2 stoke engine weighs about 25 to 50 lb. and electric motor weighs less, perhaps as little as 10 lb. Fuel is not included in flying weight for the rule, so when you add 100 lb of batteries, it is conceivable that the batteries might put the weight over the limit if the plane was close to the limit to start with. If the plane was 240 to start, remove 75 lb in gas engines and apparatus to run them, add 40 back in for electric motors plus 100 for batteries puts you at 305. This is all guess work on my part but I hope you can see the point of my question.
In another video, ua-cam.com/video/ix7pWElDaEY/v-deo.html, Dale Kramer states HIS interpretation of FAR Part 103: the regulation states that they ultralight can weigh up to 254 lb., plus 5 gallons of fuel. Since gallons are a measure of volume, not weight, Kramer believes that he can put up to 5 gallons (volume) of batteries in it. Not sure the FAA sees it that way.
Brian Carpenter at Oshkosh said the batteries had to be removable to be considered fuel. For the electric motor glider they were strapping the battery pack to satisfy this requirement.
Dale Kramer announced that he was ready to start selling his eLazair ($20,000 for a kit, $25,000 built... not including the $6,000 needed for the batteries) three years ago. This video was made two years ago. And they STILL haven't gotten their webpage built yet! Get your act together guys! It's not that expensive to hire a webmaster to crank out a simple webpage! Also, who's going to spend $26,000 on an airplane with a maximum flight time of two hours? I mean, it would be nice to have quiet electric motors instead of a noisy gas engine, but since you say it takes "three 20 amp circuits" to charge the batteries, it's not like I can taxi up to a Chevron and fill it up. The novelty, noise control, and low fuel costs aren't enough to make this a worthwhile purchase.
Inventors or not usually business people. I hope they get it soon I am almost 60 ys old and would buy one because of its simplicity and good flight numbers.
UA-camdoctor I cant see why you can't build an electric ultra for under 5k. in fact the batteries should cost more than the plane. my cheap quadcopter has 22lb of lift for $200 worth of motor.
Do to solar panels were too costly in 2012. Solar will be toward our future able to run even more green charging. Maybe in 2020's it can most likely happen toward free flight power.
See ua-cam.com/video/ix7pWElDaEY/v-deo.html - Dale Kramer interprets FAR Part 103 thus: 254 lb for the aircraft, plus 5 gallons for fuel. No weight limit is given for the fuel, so Kramer believes that he can put a volume of 5 gallons of batteries in the plane. By now (late 2017), FAA may have made a clarification on this, but I haven't seen it.
This would help to extend battery life, but even if you covered the wing completely with solar cells, with the best cells available today, it would only cover a fraction of the power needed to sustain flight - maybe 1/3 to 1/2.
All that information is either on this video, or one of the two other's that I have done. If you are a subscriber just use the search bar in Ultralightnews to do a search for electric lazair or elazair
Don't batteries literally start losing their maximum capicity as soon as you start using them? For instance, with in a year of buying my laptop, my 7 hour battery life had turned into a 4 hour battery life.
Not sure why people are so adamant about this. There's nothing in the definitions of 'motor' or 'engine' that excludes electric engines or internal combustion motors.
That's the POINT of these laws, that they cannot perform as well, fly as far, or be as heavy as airplanes requiring a pilots license. If you want to fly something that performs better, you need a pilots license.
That is NOT the point. The point is to minimize the damage that an untrained pilot can do to others. The weight limit and speed limit restrict the maximum kinetic energy, the fuel limit restricts the fireball size, the daylight-only keeps it from getting in the way of regular VFR pilots without being seen. The not-over-congested-areas limits the number of people you can crash into.
With the instant throttle response on this twin, you could effectively use thrust vectoring to have even more fun!
Since this was filmed electric propulsion has progressed in leaps and there are now inexpensive systems delivering twice the performance and efficiency of their system - the Lazair is a legendary design that almost completely disappeared, makes perfect sense that it be revived and evolved, always had a soft spot for the design. Holy kanolee, 2019 and still no website??
any idea on how to contact any of the people behind this project ?
I never bored to watch this lazair
So lucky to meet the Designer !!
Beautiful little plane here. Looks very stable and easy to fly by design and by his piloting.
This is amazing! I realize the kit project might be cancelled but nobody can take away what you've accomplished. Beautiful aircraft.Brilliant feat of engineering.
Mike Small I owned a 2-engine model, no floats. Loved it.
An electric Lazair? How cool is that. Beautiful aircraft.
I would love to see how this plane of 7 years compare's today with modern battery packs. There has been a massive jump in battery performance in the last few years I could imagine his stated 2 hour endurance easly doubled, ligher cells and potential performace capabiluty could be huge.
That was very interesting to see , closeups of the motor and battery would have been very useful. It was also interesting to hear of a different lithium battery chemistry...Thanks...Laurie
Beautiful airplane. Looks like a dragonfly. This is the future.
Nice use of new motor tech on an older airframe design.
Beautiful and efficient light craft so well designed and such simplicity. Congratulations.
Sweet! I often thought about the same thing but you are doing it. As battery technology gets better so will the flight times of course...
Same as ABC123 cells? Thank you to everybody in the RC sport that has spent their hard earned money to make this possible. I for one am tickled pink!
i really enjoyed watching. Always wanted one of these.
Looks awesome. You can tell the ground controller at the end of the video isn't used to electrics. He jumped right into the path of the props while the motors were hot.
This was published Nov 2012 and the website is still not up. Moving on to the next ultralight...
You have the Names contact them through FB maybe.
Easy Risers don't need much HP to fly .
what motor are u using
nice ultralight has lot of potential
Impressive runtime & weight
thanks for the great vid and your hard work
yes. They decay with: Using them very often. Keeping them charged without proper balancing, leaving them discharged without balancing.
Cool , sound chap.
I used to fly one of these, except it had two six hp engines with composite props.
Correct. Little chain saw type motors. Enough to get airborne and have some fun. The original kit came with "mixed" controls, meaning no separate rudder control. Very easy to fly but crosswinds were a challenge. ;-)
I loved that aircraft.
Whole different world when you leave ultra lights for Cessna's and Pipers. If it was too windy, we did not fly.
Airborne @ 18mph and land @ 18mph. Anything faster than 60 mph and the leading edge would begin to "oil can" the leading edge was an aluminum covered hard foam d-cell. Very light. It was originally designed as a glider and we used to fly them to the hills and shut down the motors, so we could ridge soar above the slopes. Great fun. Glad to see the design still around and has a (hopefully) new lease on life.
Pete Watson ... still looking fo one as colector item for our Aviation Museum in Montreal... Any hints?
Martin Pernicka No idea. That was over 30 years ago
Can solar panels be incorporated into the wings and fuselage? They have the flexible roll up rv/ camping solar that may extend use. For a bit anyway. Especially with powered gliding.
Video was shot at Airventure in Oshkosh Wisconsin and the Lazair meets the requirements for an part 103 ultralight aircraft in the U.S.
have been looking forward to the releases of the conversion kit for two years now. Hope it happens soon.
you could (fairly) easily build one, its just a lithium battery pack, controller, and motors.
This looks good.
Searching for complete plans and construction manual for the series III or the Elite …. Would love to bring this to the Philippines … any help would be very appreciated … ty
What's the flying speed and how much it costs.? Is this equipped with extra parachutes for additional safety in emergency
The more sun , the aircraft get more lift and more electricity to the battery to produce thrust.
Is there an price estimate on this whole package with the new battery setup? Do they still need to get FAA approval to make these?
I'm a little confused, FAR 103 puts the weight limit of ultralights at 254 lb. for powered craft and 150 for non-powered craft. Are the Batteries considered "fuel" and therefore not included in the total weight? The maximum amount of fuel allowed is 5 U.S. gallons which would be 30.95 lb of gasoline. If the batteries weight 100 lb, then obviously more than 3 times as much fuel weight.
who said it weighs more than 254lbs with the batteries in it?
A small 2 stoke engine weighs about 25 to 50 lb. and electric motor weighs less, perhaps as little as 10 lb. Fuel is not included in flying weight for the rule, so when you add 100 lb of batteries, it is conceivable that the batteries might put the weight over the limit if the plane was close to the limit to start with. If the plane was 240 to start, remove 75 lb in gas engines and apparatus to run them, add 40 back in for electric motors plus 100 for batteries puts you at 305. This is all guess work on my part but I hope you can see the point of my question.
Robert Russell @8:29
In another video, ua-cam.com/video/ix7pWElDaEY/v-deo.html, Dale Kramer states HIS interpretation of FAR Part 103: the regulation states that they ultralight can weigh up to 254 lb., plus 5 gallons of fuel. Since gallons are a measure of volume, not weight, Kramer believes that he can put up to 5 gallons (volume) of batteries in it. Not sure the FAA sees it that way.
Brian Carpenter at Oshkosh said the batteries had to be removable to be considered fuel. For the electric motor glider they were strapping the battery pack to satisfy this requirement.
exelente avioneta muy buentrabajo los felicito
Great video!!! Is there anything new about this endeavor???
Haven't seen Dale at any of the recent shows, so I can not update the information.
The Ultralight Flyer
Thank you for answering!
Believe it caught fire and project abandoned apparently.
If you're lucky the motors/controllers will be that cheap. It's about 4 or 5KWh of battery so that's going to set you back probably 3 or 4 grand.
Dale Kramer announced that he was ready to start selling his eLazair ($20,000 for a kit, $25,000 built... not including the $6,000 needed for the batteries) three years ago. This video was made two years ago. And they STILL haven't gotten their webpage built yet!
Get your act together guys! It's not that expensive to hire a webmaster to crank out a simple webpage!
Also, who's going to spend $26,000 on an airplane with a maximum flight time of two hours? I mean, it would be nice to have quiet electric motors instead of a noisy gas engine, but since you say it takes "three 20 amp circuits" to charge the batteries, it's not like I can taxi up to a Chevron and fill it up. The novelty, noise control, and low fuel costs aren't enough to make this a worthwhile purchase.
Inventors or not usually business people. I hope they get it soon I am almost 60 ys old and would buy one because of its simplicity and good flight numbers.
Two hours is actually a VERY respectable runtime, especially for e power. However no website means this project has been canceled.
UA-camdoctor I cant see why you can't build an electric ultra for under 5k. in fact the batteries should cost more than the plane. my cheap quadcopter has 22lb of lift for $200 worth of motor.
With electric you might be able to apply reverse thrust on landing, which could be a fun thing to have?
Very Good Idea !
If i may ask. What kind of motor is used on your aircraft???
Do to solar panels were too costly in 2012. Solar will be toward our future able to run even more green charging. Maybe in 2020's it can most likely happen toward free flight power.
how much will it cost. i hope its under 2 grand. and dose this meet part 103 requirements?
man if brush-less electric motors dose for ultralights what it did for the RC airplane world . flying is about to change for ever.
Precioso y vuela muy bien. Pero ¿Cuanto cuesta? ¿Money?
Вот это взлет - браво!?
What material is it covered with? How does 350 lbs qualify it as an ultralight? (I thought the limit was around 265?)
It's different in different countries. 254 is the US. Europe is different, and Canada is different... as well as Australia
See ua-cam.com/video/ix7pWElDaEY/v-deo.html - Dale Kramer interprets FAR Part 103 thus: 254 lb for the aircraft, plus 5 gallons for fuel. No weight limit is given for the fuel, so Kramer believes that he can put a volume of 5 gallons of batteries in the plane. By now (late 2017), FAA may have made a clarification on this, but I haven't seen it.
How to build this aircraft...
Are Lazaires still being built? What would be the average price for a used one, with piston engines? Electric?
Unfortunately they are no longer being built, only parts are available.
@@ultralightnews Too bad, I love the design, and the gas/electric option is so right now.
What power is needed to fly this light plane, to long keep flown?
+jwserge - Original power was 2 pioneer chainsaw engines of about 5 HP each, later 2 - Rotax 9.5 HP
+Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer
So, 10HP (2x5) is enough to take off?
+jwserge Yes
The answer to solve your charging/battery problem Solar panels and peak charger with a voltage regulator.
This would help to extend battery life, but even if you covered the wing completely with solar cells, with the best cells available today, it would only cover a fraction of the power needed to sustain flight - maybe 1/3 to 1/2.
Is there a weight limit ??pilot weight?
254 lbs for the ultralight, and no technical weight limit for the pilot, but usually around 200 lbs.
too expensive. kit needs to come in around 5k to 7k
Although mankind has invented many ways to fly,the flapping motion of wings has yet to be completely understood or copied.
How much par engine
The God's must be crazy
All that information is either on this video, or one of the two other's that I have done. If you are a subscriber just use the search bar in Ultralightnews to do a search for electric lazair or elazair
Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer
well, if they retain their max for a long time, i guess its alright. I just thought everything was lithium ion.
needs solar cells on the wings to charge the battery
It is more like a get rich quick game to build e-plane ....
great discovery b or 21st crntury
Don't batteries literally start losing their maximum capicity as soon as you start using them? For instance, with in a year of buying my laptop, my 7 hour battery life had turned into a 4 hour battery life.
Все оригинально просо.
Combustion engine, electric MOTOR!
Not sure why people are so adamant about this. There's nothing in the definitions of 'motor' or 'engine' that excludes electric engines or internal combustion motors.
That's the POINT of these laws, that they cannot perform as well, fly as far, or be as heavy as airplanes requiring a pilots license. If you want to fly something that performs better, you need a pilots license.
That is NOT the point. The point is to minimize the damage that an untrained pilot can do to others. The weight limit and speed limit restrict the maximum kinetic energy, the fuel limit restricts the fireball size, the daylight-only keeps it from getting in the way of regular VFR pilots without being seen. The not-over-congested-areas limits the number of people you can crash into.
There are used lazairs out there .... restore one ....
criei este canal agora vai da certo
beautiful (airplane too)
Let me guess; still abysmal flight times
Interesting - if you WATCH the video it flies for about the same time as 5 gallons of fuel will last on a two stroke engine.
The Ultralight Flyer
I WISH ALL BET VHAY NOT ELCTRIC ULTRALIGHT WE HAVE ELCTRIC CARS ILOET !
7:00 = price
Over 2 hours...are you s******in me ?
Not s*****in you, but that's 110 lbs. of batteries to do that.