Green Flight Challenge Goes Live!
The NASA Innovative Partnerships Program and the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation today announced the CAFE Green Flight Challenge (CGFC), a flight efficiency competition for aircraft that can average at least 100 mph on a 200-mile flight while achieving greater than 200 passenger miles-per-gallon. The prize for the aircraft with the best performance will be $1.5 million. This is the largest prize ever offered for a general aviation competition. A $150,000 prize for best score by a bio-fueled aircraft is also offered.
The competition is slated for July 2011 at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, California. A variety of innovative experimental aircraft that fly with either electricity, solar, bio-fuel or hybrid propulsion are expected to enter. Several major universities and EAA aircraft builders have already expressed their intention to form teams to compete. The competition is now officially accepting entrants at cafefoundation.org.