11/16/2023
Join us, Tuesday, November 21, 2023 for our monthly chapter meeting at the Fleming Field Airport Terminal. Our speaker is Steve Schultz. Steve is president of SkyLab Engineering located at the Anoka County / Blaine, Minnesota Airport KANE.
His group has designed a very unique hybrid aircraft, powered by a small generator supplying electric power to ten small electric engines along the leading edge of the wings. The goals of the program is simple. Electric and/or hybrid electric flight, good cross-country range and useful load, distributed electric thrust to yield a blown wing, outstanding visibility, simplicity of structure and a low part count and as the engineers put it, "Make everyone lose their minds."
Skylab 1 is modular so as to allow for the fitting of new systems such as the engine should new technology become available that justifies it.
The airframe itself is made out of lightweight fiberglass, with a design empty weight of 1,100 lbs and a max gross weight of 1,900 lbs. Wingspan is 25 ft., length of the fuselage is 24 ft. The fuel tank sits underneath the genset and seats and holds 47 gals of fuel, which should yield a range of 500 nm or so at 150 kts cruise speed. The design of the airframe also brings simplicity of construction, because only two molds are needed, one for the airframe and another for the frontal "bowl" with room for two and a bit of luggage. The landing gear is fixed and made of spring aluminum. Come bring a friend and join us at the Fleming Field Terminal Building. A light meal will be provided starting at 6:00 pm followed by our speaker Steve Shultz starting at 7:00 pm.
