Hi. This is the first blog post in a series documenting the conception, prototyping, and construction of the world’s first open source electric motorglider. To start, let me first introduce myself, and the project.
Who Am I
I am a physics and computer science graduate for the university of Prince Edward Island (Canada). I was born in Ecuador, and grew up in Brazil. I’m also an airplane nerd, and have my private pilot’s license. So now you see why the idea of making an open source electric motorglider gives me the shivers.
What Is Kontor
The word Kontor is derived from “kuntur”, the Quechua word for condor. A condor is the largest flying bird on earth (excluding extinct species) and the only bird that ventures above the clouds. Quite poetic, eh? The reason I am creating this project, is because I am sick and tired of paying CAD250.00 per hour to fly a Cessna 172. The entire concept of a gasoline powered engine is beautiful, but also beautifully complex. It adds overhead costs that make flying with one of those almost not worth it. Maybe I am just part of a “electric vehicles are the future” trend which may eventually die down. Or maybe breakthroughs in battery technology will make electric vehicles much more competitive than gas powered vehicles. Regardless, I place my bets on the latter, electric powered vehicles already have something going for them. They are:
- simpler
- safer
- cheaper
- potentially more ecologically friendly
So to me it makes perfect sense to develop an airplane that can fly on electric power. One day batteries will be able to sustain flights for about the same as gas powered airplanes. And why not focus on getting my dirty feat off the ground? Anyway, it seems like the best bet for regulations, is to go for a powered glider. This gives me enough wiggle room to go up to 750kg (in Europe), carry up to 1 passenger, and I can still enter class B airspace provided I have a two way radio and a transponder on board. Seems like the perfect deal. Also, why are there no open source designs for aircraft yet? The Kontor project should be open source. Now let’s review what has been done before:
- ElectraFlyer ULS probably the closest to what I am looking for. This is an 8 years old design, which seems to have slowed down 4 years ago.
- MakerPlane proof that an open source airplane development can be done. These guys raised enough money to build their prototypes, and fly them to Oshkosh last year (2019).
- OpenPPG this is not an airplane, but it is a flying machine (and frankly, it’s pretty glorious). The OpenPPG project encompasses exactly what the Kontor project aims to accomplish, except I want to build a motor glider. The OpenPPG project’s current state is where the matured Kontor project aims to be: an open source design, a community of people dedicated to the project, and a monetization system based on services placed (such as selling ready to fly products).
What the future holds
Over time, I hope to hear from fellow pilots, homebuilt aircraft builders, fellow programmers, and airspace enthusiasts, who are interested in seeing this project take flight (see what I did there?)
See my next post 🙂
- by Eduardo”