Helios Horizon, Sarasota pilot, set 2 electric flight records in sky over Lake Tahoe
The Helios Horizon, an electric powered experimental aircraft flown by Sarasota-based test pilot and engineer Miguel Iturmendi, captured two world records for aircraft lighter than 500 kilos on June 2 near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Related: Sarasota test pilot hopes to set electric flight altitude record this May in Nevada
Capping several days of test flights, Iturmendi flew a two-battery configuration of the plane to a height of 16,023 feet for the altitude world record, then continued for three minutes of level flight for a second world record on precision flight.
The records were certified by judges from the National Aeronautic Association.
Iturmendi beat the U.S. altitude record he set in November 2022 and exceeded the previous altitude world record – held by a German pilot working with the University of Stuttgart – by 57%.
Iturmendi had hoped the judges would get to witness Helios Horizon get the absolute world record for electric powered flight, which would require the Helios be set up in a six-battery configuration. But he had to change plans because of a malfunction in an automatic switch over from the two-battery pack to an additional four-battery pack.
On earlier test flights with the six-battery configuration, Iturmendi had to make the switch manually.
It would have taken only a few hours to fix the problem, but two weeks to get the needed parts.
“We ran out of time, quite frankly,” Iturmendi said during a phone interview while driving the plane back to Sarasota, along with project manager Javier Merino.
Earlier: The Right Stuff: Sarasota test pilot pushing the envelope of solar flight
Still those earlier flights point to eventual success in the quest for the absolute world record of 32,000 feet, which was set in April 2021 by the Solar Impulse, a $260 million Swiss project.
By comparison, Helios Horizon is on a shoestring budget, with Iturmendi relying on a few investors and volunteers. Prior to this summer, the project had cost roughly $400,000.
A key accomplishment
On one of the test fights in late May, the Helios Horizon reached an altitude of 20,000 feet and used only 38% of its battery power.
“When we did the 20,000 foot flight and we used 38% of the battery, we validated the performance model; it went very well,” Iturmendi said.
Itumendi noted that the calculated altitude for the Helios Horizon when it weighs less than 500 kilograms is 17,000 feet.
The record flight from Minden-Tahoe Airport on June 2 took about 50 minutes, with the Helios Horizon climbing for the first 30 minutes.
The plane climbs at a rate of 390 feet per minute but once Iturmendi eclipsed 16,000, he opted to accomplish the three minutes of precision flight.
“If I would have used those three minutes in climbing, that would have given me the extra 1,000 feet,’ Iturmendi said.
Helios Horizon and other experimental electric aircraft are conducting high altitude research that aviation professionals hope can one day lead to electric passenger aircraft – which produce 4% of all emissions worldwide – or cargo aircraft.
After Iturmendi returns to Sarasota this week, he is taking a family vacation in Europe and after that, working in Argentina with the Airbus Perlan Mission II – an attempt to set a world record of 90,000 feet above the earth for a pressurized engineless glider.
An October return
He and the Sarasota-based members of the Helios Horizon team plan to reunite with the Minden-based team members in late October to set the overall electric-powered flight altitude record.
Once that is accomplished the next step will be to return to Minden and take that aircraft to 43,000 feet and be the first-ever electric aircraft to go into the stratosphere.
The third phase of the Helios Horizon project, envisioned as happening as soon as 2025, would see the Helios Horizon equipped with wings that can capture solar energy and fly into the stratosphere using solar power.
The flight in late May showed that Helios Horizon is on the right course to accomplish that feat.
“The most important part is we validated the performance model with all the batteries,” Iturmendi said.
Data gathered on that flight and the dozen or so other test lights made in Minden will be used to develop the October flight plan.
“It will be very doable with all of the batteries,” Iturmendi said. “We had some technical challenges that slowed us down but in the end we left really happy.”
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Miguel Iturmendi sets 2 electric flight records in Helios Horizon
