The CAFE Aviation Green Prize
October 28, 2008
The CAFE Foundation has developed and submitted to NASA a detailed proposal for the CAFE Aviation Green Prize, a $1M flight competition for safe, practical aircraft that can simultaneously demonstrate ≥ 100 MPG and ≥ 100 mph. Aimed to attract university teams to compete, the event is currently proposed as a 200 statute mile race in July 2010 that would favor aircraft propelled by electricity. Stayed tuned here for its official announcement.
CAFE visits Stanford's DARPA Challenge Vehicle
October 24, 2008
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By invitation, CAFE officials made a special visit to Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to explore its advanced work in pilotless vehicles. Stanford's Adam Coates and Michael Montemerlo hosted the visit, which included a look at the sensors, hardware and software that enable Stanford's autonomous helicopter and DARPA Challenge Car to pilot themselves.
A short drive around campus in the car revealed its amazing real-time capabilities to detect and avoid obstacles. CAFE believes that such capabilities, when applied to personal aircraft, will greatly enhance their safety and consumer popularity.
3rd Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium
October 23, 2008
CAFE announced plans for the 3rd Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium set for Friday, April 24, 2009 at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. The all-day meeting will feature the top experts in this exciting field and will be followed by a networking dinner in the museum. Stay tuned here for information regarding registration and speaker agenda.
CAFE Visits NASA Dryden
August 29, 2008
The CAFE team made a special visit to meet with Dryden flight test engineers on August 29, 2008. Dryden's team were shown and briefed on CAFE's flight test equipment. The meeting included discussions about best practices for testing noise, airspeed and temperature, mitigating air mass effects, and ruggedizing flight test hardware. After the meetings, the CAFE team was given an insider's tour of Dryden's facility and specialized aircraft, including a turn at flying the amazing F-18 simulator.
2008 GAT Challenge Press Release
July 15, 2008
Competitors in the 2008 GAT Challenge have been announced. Please see the press release here.
2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium
April 29, 2008
The CAFE Foundation's 2nd Annual Electric Aircraft Symposium saw presentations that justify the rapidly increasing interest in Green personal air travel. Sponsored by Foundation Capital, the April 26, 2008 meeting assembled an outstanding faculty to discuss the many aspects of electric-powered flight. It included an remarkable announcement by the Experimental Aircraft Association that it has filed a request for the FAA to allow electric propulsion in low cost aircraft. Learn more about this event.
2008 GAT Challenge Announced
CAFE is proud to announce the 2008 flight competition successor to the PAV Centennial Challenge. The new competition embodies many important goals for the future of general aviation and is consequently named the General Aviation Technology Challenge. Learn more about this event.
Dedicated to Advances in Personal Aircraft
For over 25 years the aviation enthusiasts at the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation have been carefully measuring personal aircraft performance with innovations in flight testing. Their passion for this stems from the thrill of working with state-of-the-art aircraft and the geniuses who create them.
Out of this passion has emerged a unique and knowledgeable team [Meet the CAFE Board] that is honored and thrilled to have been selected by NASA to host the great Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) Challenge.
Beginning with the CAFE 400 races of the 1980's, CAFE evolved into an independent flight test agency supported by grants from the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and the FAA. CAFE's work has gone beyond simple measurement of speed and MPG and expanded into innovative research in engines, propulsion and aerodynamics. It has been published in numerous journals and magazines and can be found here.
As a non-profit educational foundation, CAFE is actively working to raise the funds necessary to make NASA's great PAV Centennial Challenge happen. Please check out how you can support personal aviation at here.
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