Smallest Manned Electric Plane Flies

garymortimer writes "EADs have successfully flown an electrified Cri-Cri aircraft. The Cri-cri (short for cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban, the Cri-cri aircraft is the world's smallest twin-engine . At only 4.9 m (16.1 ft) wingspan and 3.9 m (12.8 ft) length, it is a single-seater, making an impression of a dwarf velomobile with wings at close range. After its manned flight trials the airframe will be configured for autonomous flight. Obviously once the pilot is removed payload increases dramatically and the airframe itself has been approved for manned flight so certifying it for UAV flight should be simpler."

Comments

Looks like 4 motors in this picture.

[RNLockwood]

Here's a link to the same story with a picture taken from the side, much more revealing. Four motors total grouped in two pairs.

http://www.aviationbusiness.com.au/news/cri-cri-the-all-electric-aircraft-gets-airborne

Copy and paste summary

[Snowblindeye]

The Cri-cri (short for cricket) is the smallest twin-engined manned aircraft in the world, designed in the early 1970s by French aeronautical engineer Michel Colomban, the Cri-cri aircraft is the world's smallest twin-engine .

At first I thought the writer of the summary had simply messed up when editing and repeated the same thing twice. But when you check wikipedia, it has the same mistake, even down to the space in front of the period: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colomban_Cri-cri&oldid=383417426

At least when you copy and paste verbatim from wikipedia, read the sentence and see if it makes sense.

Video on Youtube found of Electric Cri-Cri

[telomerewhythere]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrbgcIOaDpw
Here is a video of this Cri-cri.
Angle of attack seems high, and the landing looked a little rough.

Not the smallest

[gurps_npc]

Not by far. There are ultralight planes and some come with electric engines If you actually read the article as opposed to the incorrect summary posted, you see no claims for smallness. It is just the first ever FOUR engine all electric plane. The only important thing here was the 4 electric engines, not size.