Electric Airframes

[Chuck Hochhalter]

Alright now, going beyond the motor setup, how about the actual airframe
itself.  For certain the weight of the airframe is a huge factor.
Lighter is better esp for electrics as you can run a potentially
different battery setup as current, watts etc are decreased (?).
 
Do the stresses on the basic internal structure change enough to allow a
plane to be built significantly differently and lighter in areas that
were OVER built for the stresses of large vibrating IC motors?
 
Let take for instance a light wooden plane such as Mark Hunts Insight.
I think it weighs like 9lbs 8 oz with a 140 sport in it.  Guessing at
the conversion straight to electric it would now weigh around 9 lbs 14
ozs running 5s4p dual packs and an AXI setup.  If the air frame was
reengineered in a way to allow it to be built around 9 lbs and remain as
strong but because of the lower overall weight go to a smaller battery
say the 5s3p packs and still see the same performance and duration?
 
I may be changing too many variables for a straight answer but the
general idea I think you get.  Just some thoughts (how about an all
depron 2 meter) hmm.
 
Thanks for your thoughts positive or negative.
 
Chuck
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20050922/15bc2362/attachment.html