Presently, alkaline dry cell batteries are everyday bread-and-butter for all kinds of portable gears, even in the remotest kampongs and nomad yurts. It's almost impossible to find those classic leaky manganese batteries, the workhorse of past generations, anymore. But the reign of alkaline may come to an end earlier than we think.

Take Matsushita/Panasonic, my namesake again. Its new type of dry cell, Oxyride battery, has the chance to be the next dominant power. Already, Oxyrides ride high in the digital camera field.

Then, Matsushita engineers concocted a strange idea while promoting these Oxyride batteries. "How about manned flight, powered by our Oxyrides?"

Flight of Icarus. Or flight of Volta, rather. Don't ask about the air speed. Some of the escort students could run faster.

There have been quite a few battery-operated heavier-than-air flyers, all being model or toy planes. Starting from a featherweight indoor model to radio-controllable toys with rechargeable NiMH cells. Even some model helicopters, too. But manned flight? Nobody considered it was possible.

Imagine. The hypothetical plane has to take off with around 60kg to 70kg of pure dead weight. To lift it up, a very large acreage of wing is required. And a certain speed is needed to get the airlift from that wing. It means more power, more and more batteries. More weight. The learned conclusion from aerodynamicists, therefore, is firmly: "Not possible!". Ah well, scholastic verdict had been the same at the time of the crazy Wright brothers.

Though Matsushita engineers have built and successfully flown an Oxyride-powered radio-controlled plane of a massive 4m wingspan, they were intrinsically not very familiar with aerodymamics. So they made contact with Tokyo Institute of Technology, the top engineering college in Japan. There, they found a bunch of mad students who immediately showed utmost enthusiasm for this hopeless project. The madness somehow started in January 2006.

April 2006. Airplane was finished. Test flight: Failure, failure, failure, then somehow lifting up. Not very satisfactory. Tons of sweat and toil were poured in with youthful vigor.

July 16. Honda airfield in Okegawa-city, north of Tokyo. Under the scrutiny of JAA (Japan Aeronautic Association, local organization of FAI, Federation Aeronautique International) observers, the official flight was undertaken. The third try of the day. 160 Oxyride AA batteries (20 serial cells formed one row, eight rows connected parallel: 30V) surged out almost 900W of power, and poured directly into the propeller motor. The flimsy airframe started moving slowly, and increased speed gradually. At around 10kmh, it miraculously took off!

The pilot, or pure dead weight. 63kg including T-shirt and bicycle helmet. Airframe, motor, 160 Oxyride AA batteries weighed a mere 44kg.

The flight lasted 59 seconds altogether. Maximum altitude, 6.11m. Flight distance, 391.4m. Crazy students and engineers did it finally.

I guess Panasonic Oxyride dry cells will overwhelm the market soon. Not only in Japan, but also in Asian stalls, too. And Chinese factories will spit out billions of them at a very affordable price, under the license of Matsushita Panasonic.

When you insert them into your digital camera or MP3 player, please think of those insane young men and young woman (only one in the team) who flew a plane with Oxyride cells. And please laugh at them. They love it!

Oxyride AA batteries for the flight. One rack contained 80 cells. Two racks powered the flight.

Massive wing structure. Wing span, 31m!

 

cheewee
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kaisei1
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