First we had electric trains. Then electric cars. Now, airplanes.

Sonex, a national leader in providing affordable high performance kit aircraft, is developing a concept Waiex E-Flight Electric-Powered plane.

I caught up with Mark Schaible, Marketing Director for Sonex, at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture last year, the largest aircraft event on the planet. The EAA AirVenture is held in July and early August every year in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at the Wittman Regional Airport.

“That’s our goal,” says Schaible, surrounded by the entire family of kit aircraft, including the Sonex Sport Trainer, Sonex Sport Acro and Xenos Sport Motorglider.  “Keep ahead of the marketplace with an electric airplane.  Someone is going to do it, so it might as well be us. We have made a lot of progress and are working very hard toward first flight [with our Waiex E-Flight Electric Powered aircraft].”

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Photo courtesy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, taken by John Lund.

For example, the Soaring Society of America, representing over 11,000 active soaring and motorglider pilots, has promoted the ecological benefits of non-motorized flight for years.  Using the power of the sun to keep their machines aloft for hours on end, gliders (sailplanes) exploit the sunshine striking Earth’s surface, causing the air to warm and rise.  Thanks to aeronautical design and the use of light composite materials, a glider can lift upwards on this stream of warming air and ride it to the base of clouds, across great distances and speeds nearing 100 mph.  “No fuel, no money, no problem,” sums up Anne Mingiovi with a smile at the Soaring Society of America exhibit area at the EAA AirVenture last year.

Like at the gas pump, aviation fuel has taken huge price swings over the past year. “For 100 low-lead, the most common general aviation fuel, its price has swung up and down with fuel prices in general,” explains Knapinski.  “It still remains $1 to $1.50 per gallon higher than auto fuel, and is tied with the price of oil.  Another challenge has been the increasing ethanol blends in motor fuels.  Ethanol is quite damaging to aircraft fueling systems as they now exist,  and with thousands of aircraft able to use non-ethanol auto fuel, that inclusion can swiftly become a safety issue.”  This is, in part, why some of the more innovative aircraft companies are exploring biodiesel engines or electric-powered flight.

“The EAA has always been the organization where those who are thinking ahead find a community of support,” adds Knapinski.  “Every year at Oshkosh there are new ideas, concepts and prototypes that challenge the status-quo thinking of aviation. For instance, General Electric sent its aviation engineering
staff to Oshkosh in 2008 to find out what notable ideas might be coming out of the individual innovators and tinkerers. That is the reputation of EAA members and their organization, which all comes together at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh each summer.”

So, the entrepreneur economy—as evidenced by the thousands of exhibitors and aircraft designers—continues to soar at the EAA AirVenture.

Want to catch what’s next in energy-efficient aviation? Land at this year’s EAA AirVenture.

Photos Courtesy of Beige Alert @ Flickr under Creative Commons license.