NASA and CAFE’ Green Aircraft Challenge announced

The NASA Innovative Partnerships Program and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation have announced the Green Aircraft Challenge. To win the competition, participating teams have to build an aircraft that can achieve a 100 mph average on a 200 mile route with a 200 passenger miles per gallon mileage.

The winning prize value is 1.5 million USD. The competition will be held at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California in 2011.
Aircraft of all kinds ranging from electrical, solar, bi-fuel to hybrid propulsion systems are expected to participate in the competition. Many aircraft builders and universities have expressed their interest and intention to participate in the competition.

Mechanical and electrical engineering, structures, aerodynamics and thermodynamics are some of the areas in which the teams must excel if they want to win the competition.

Efficiency, conservation and zero-carbon energy sources are the three climate mitigation initiatives that the competition will look to advance. The competition will be a national showcase of ‘Green technology’.

These technologies might have advanced applications in aviation and also could be used in transportation and energy storage purposes.

“The Challenge is intended to bring about the development and convergence of new technologies and innovations that can improve the community acceptance, efficiency, door-to-door speed, utility, environmental-friendliness, affordability and safety of future air vehicles,” CAFÉ stated.

The organization also stated that to ensure the air vehicles are useful, safe and practical, the Green Aircraft Challenge has organized a series of separate but inter-related flight attempts that measure key performance capabilities.

The Green Flight challenge is conducted and administered by CAFÉ and NASA. CAFÉ, founded in 1981, is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the understanding of personal aircraft technologies through research work, analysis and education.

As a part of Centennial Challenges program, NASA will provide the prize money. This challenge expects to receive solutions to problems that could be of interest to NASA and the nation via unpredictable and unconventional sources.

However, the government might not fund the participants’ entry in the competition.