Aviation Prize Roundup - February 19, 2009

Humanitarian - Airship Z-Prize: The post is marked February 14 2009, although it's listed as October 15 2008 when you follow the link. Anyway:

One key goal of the Airship Z-Prize to develop a viable transport airship industry is focused on the potential for the application, renewal and update of the airship transport mode for the safe and effective provision of transportation support and distribution for humanitarian purposes.

Whether reacting to major disasters or providing links to remote or dangerous/disadvantaged communities airship transport shows great potential as a viable solution. Following major disasters requiring humanitarian relief, oftentimes existing transport infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airports are destroyed or damaged rendering them unusable. ...

There are a number of posts from this month on airship developments in general.

For a similar theme without the prize, Up Ship! blog continues its active posting.

The 2009 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium - CAFE Foundation: I mentioned this symposium in an earlier post, but now they are listing an initial draft of presentations for the event. One of them is on their Centennial Challenge plans:

3:10 PM The AGP: Aviation’s Green Prize—The Flight Competition for 100 MPG Aircraft, Brien Seeley M.D. President CAFE Foundation

Here are some links that give hints how the contest has developed:

2009 CAFE Aviation Green Prize - RATIONALE FOR THE CONTEST DESIGN (PDF)

Unofficial and Not Yet Approved Rules Draft - 2009 CAFE AVIATION GREEN PRIZE CHALLENGE (PDF):

The 2009 CHALLENGE will be the third annual competition that will demonstrate new technologies for small aircraft that are applicable to a wide range of future aviation missions, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Air-Taxi operations, homeland security surveillance, personal transportation, etc. ...

Aviation Green Prize blog - There are only a couple posts here, but there are quite a few comments in 1 of them (from last year, asking for comments on the rules). Brien Seeley summarizes the contest here:

Like the Progressive Automotive X Prize, the rules reward best speed among those achieving ≥ 100 MPGe.

The EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Chapter 124 newsletters have a couple mentions of the contest:

November 2008 Newsletter (PDF):

November 5, 2008 PROGRAM: Brien Seeley of CAFE will speak on "CAFE and The Aviation Green Prize".

December 2008 Newsletter (PDF):

New Business: Brien Seeley, of the CAFÉ Foundation, has approached Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) about the possibility of PG&E being a major sponsor of the upcoming Green Aircraft Challenge. One of the emerging technologies seems to be for electric power plants. Brien sees a tie in to PG&E’s electric business. Brien is hoping that their sponsorship role would include upgrading the power line that supplies the CAFÉ hangar. (The same line that feeds the CAFÉ hangar also supplies the power to the Chapter’s facilities.)