Electric charger station for aircraft at KVBT

Let’s fly an inefficient toy for the climates sake!
 
So, it appears to actually be a usable aircraft (2+ hours endurance? 335nm range) and it looks like they have charging infrastructure in place up and down the east coast plus well inland (AR is pretty far from the east coast)...

That's looking more successful than I expected at this stage of the game.
 
Daleandee said:
Have at it, just don't block the 100LL pumps please ... :biggrin:
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As long as you don't block the EA chargers. :p

I did think it somewhat ironic that there's already an Archer tied down uncomfortably close to the chargers. Probably hasn't even had a plane plugged into it yet and already getting ICEd!
 
flyingcheesehead said:
I did think it somewhat ironic that there's already an Archer tied down uncomfortably close to the chargers.
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What's wrong with that?
Archer-1jpg.jpeg
 
flyingcheesehead said:
As long as you don't block the EA chargers. :p

I did think it somewhat ironic that there's already an Archer tied down uncomfortably close to the chargers. Probably hasn't even had a plane plugged into it yet and already getting ICEd!
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1728100824120.png
 
Salty said:
Note the lack of a picture of an actual aircraft.
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See post 5. No need for charging infrastructure without aircraft to use it. The self-serve gas at my local airport generally has no aircraft in front of it.
 
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It was interesting to me that they've created multiple high voltage busses and split them apart so they can charge the battery and power their thermal management for the battery and cabin independently so as not to degrade charge times.

I dont know if they're all equally capable charging systems, or if the conditioning power units are lower power, but that's 2 extra connectors with all the weight and complexity penalty to carry over a single connector.
 
bentmettle said:
It was interesting to me that they've created multiple high voltage busses and split them apart so they can charge the battery and power their thermal management for the battery and cabin independently so as not to degrade charge times.

I dont know if they're all equally capable charging systems, or if the conditioning power units are lower power, but that's 2 extra connectors with all the weight and complexity penalty to carry over a single connector.
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I'm not sure the cabin conditioning is a power cord. It could just be a flexible air hose like they use on the ground for airliners (on a much smaller scale here).
 
bentmettle said:
It was interesting to me that they've created multiple high voltage busses and split them apart so they can charge the battery and power their thermal management for the battery and cabin independently so as not to degrade charge times.

I dont know if they're all equally capable charging systems, or if the conditioning power units are lower power, but that's 2 extra connectors with all the weight and complexity penalty to carry over a single connector.
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Here is the charge page from Beta: https://www.beta.team/charge/
They do not appear to have it up anymore; but they used to have a description of the three cubes. Two were power, third was conditioning connection. Like @flyingron said, the conditioning cable is actually some sort of coolant to manage the heat in the battery pack and charge faster. The onboard battery management system has limited cooling power and without the conditioning pack the charging rate is rather limited. Never stated on the page that I saw, was how the conditioning works (air, water, oil, glycol....) and what the charge rates are with and without the external conditioning system.

When you think about the fact that weight is the enemy for planes, have the very heavy conditioning system external when you need to have a large footprint for the power cables anyways is kinda brilliant. They are the only electric vehicle company (land, water or air) that I have seen do this.


Tim
 
tspear said:
I have not read the timeline before on Beta. Just sort of watched the website every once in a while. Kinda impressive: https://www.beta.team/timeline/
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Wow. This is a real operation... And with the charging infrastructure they've put in place and the numbers they are putting up, it looks like they're well positioned for success.
 
I suppose I mashed up automotive thinking into my brain when I saw the box and didn't consider they didn't need to actually do it with electricity if they offboarded more of the system.

In most of the car systems I'm familiar with, the onboard HVAC doing either cabin or battery conditioning is taking power away from the charging operation. Hopefully they've found someone more reliable than whoever EA uses to do their charger design/build...
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Wow. This is a real operation... And with the charging infrastructure they've put in place and the numbers they are putting up, it looks like they're well positioned for success.
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Not sure still applies. But when you looked at the map for the initial proposed locations for charging stations, the airports were usually 100 to 300 miles around metro areas. Hmm.... UPS was one of the early LOI companies; and just around the time UPS signed Beta added the fixed wing with no lift fan version. Coincidence? I somehow doubt it. As for which came first, that I have no clue.

But UPS has previously been on the record about wanting to solve MX and traffic issues. Airplane cycles on really short hauls cause to much costs and delays, while traffic hurts around metro areas. Beta likely fits in the sweet spot between longer range with larger loads handled by SETP, and the short distances handled well by trucks; especially near metro areas with traffic problems.

Tim
 
tspear said:
Not sure still applies. But when you looked at the map for the initial proposed locations for charging stations, the airports were usually 100 to 300 miles around metro areas. Hmm.... UPS was one of the early LOI companies; and just around the time UPS signed Beta added the fixed wing with no lift fan version. Coincidence? I somehow doubt it. As for which came first, that I have no clue.
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UPS works at a LOT of small airports... But I'm sure they also see the writing on the wall and realize that those airports aren't going to be around forever, so they're hedging against that.
tspear said:
But UPS has previously been on the record about wanting to solve MX and traffic issues. Airplane cycles on really short hauls cause to much costs and delays, while traffic hurts around metro areas. Beta likely fits in the sweet spot between longer range with larger loads handled by SETP, and the short distances handled well by trucks; especially near metro areas with traffic problems.
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Yes.
 
I'm curious if this UPS scenario includes EV trucks as well - the infrastructure at the airports will presumably be built out. I'd want to either pull up my utlization rate up high enough to justify the premium electrical service required for the chargers, or push it down to the floor and use a stationary battery supported by a lower cost utility installation.
 
bentmettle said:
I'm curious if this UPS scenario includes EV trucks as well - the infrastructure at the airports will presumably be built out. I'd want to either pull up my utlization rate up high enough to justify the premium electrical service required for the chargers, or push it down to the floor and use a stationary battery supported by a lower cost utility installation.
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Most likely. They are one of the early Tesla Semi customers. I'm sure they also recognize that, being a company that is involved in transportation in many forms, their profitability in the future is going to depend on being able to move things at low cost. I'm sure none of this qualifies as "low cost" yet, but it is an investment to get them there.
 
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