hey..
another, very interesting (and expensive) toy:
the ANTARES 20E from Lange Flugzeugbau
its the first, comercial sold electric soarer/glider on the world...
with superb performance !
some data:
42 kW power
216Nm torque !! (with direct drive)
it climbs with 4.4m/s !!! in the beginning
and reaches over 3000m of height with one charge !
when you considere that 3000m are enough to glide ~150km (without thermic) .. impressive !
the best: its quieter than any other motorized plane/glider around (big, slow turning prop - spins only with 1500rpm)
the batteries have a life (100% discharge down to 20% at each cycles) of 1500cycles..
with that you can make 3.6millions of meters height..
or in other words: flying a horizontal distance of 228.000km !
(6 times around the world)
of course, when motor is off, the prop goes inside the fuslage:
what a dream of a plane
nobody would have thought 15years ago that such specs would be possible
(hope nobody is disturbed by the pictures...)
for more pics and facts about the antares:
http://www.lange-flugzeugbau.com/