Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Belite Batteries demonstrate their power!

There are many things to do in preparation for the first public showing of our electric airplane. 

(I call the plane the Electric Lite.)

One item on the preparation list is a battery test.

There's nothing like a bunch of very high capacity lithium batteries to put smoke into a building when showing their power during a discharge test.  That's exactly what happened when we first tested our batteries, about a year ago.  Here's the video we made at the time, which has never before been seen or posted:


Some of the technical details of this battery test are contained within the video.

It's not much to look at -- just batteries, enormous dummy load resistors, a lot of smoke, and a room that got warmer and warmer as the test progressed.  But maybe, just maybe, you'll enjoy looking at it and wondering:  what is Belite up to?

Please watch and enjoy!

If you want to receive formal information from Belite on our electric airplane, you must register here.

If you are interested in partnering with Belite in electric aircraft development, please correspond with me directly:  james at beliteaircraft dot com

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sneak Pictures of Belite's Batteries

Earlier today, I had a conversation with my marketing manager, Kathy.  She also happens to be my wife and business partner.

"I think I'd like to start posting some more information on my blog concerning our electric airplane design," I said.  "But I won't really release any information -- I'll just create some teasing posts which show elements of our design.  Then, when we're ready to announce our progress more formally, we'll hopefully have more people attuned to what's coming."

Kathy said that sounded like a fine idea.

So, without further ado, here is a photo of a battery pack I found lying around our production facility:

LiFe04 Battery Assembly at Belite Enterprises
This particular battery is part of an electric battery system with the following selected characteristics:

Monday, December 6, 2010

Magazine Does a Photoshoot of Superlite

I enjoyed the experience of being a part of an aircraft photoshoot. It's even more interesting when you're flying an ultralight aircraft!

The photo session had several parts:

a)  Some fly-bys, down the runway, to the left and the right of the photographer.  My objective was to keep the wheels one feet off the runway, and to keep a wingtip over his head as I passed by.  I was free to start a pullup when I was within 100 feet of him.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 2

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This is the second part on our online tutorial of how to build a carbon fiber wing.

Our objective is to have a truly great ultralight aircraft - our FAR Part 103 Belite Aircraft.

The first part of this assembly document may be found by going to this link. 

I have completed my online updates to this wing assembly manual.  Further updates may be obtained by purchasing a kit, and receiving the printed wing assembly manual.
Building a Carbon Fiber Wing with Aluminum Ribs - Part 2

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16.  Installing the Sail / Anti-sail tubes

The photos in this section show the sail / anti-sail tubes without Zinc Phosphate primer.  The primer will be