NASA and Cafe Announce Green Aircraft Challenge

July 31, 2009

Sonja Alexander
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1761


Katherine Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.,
757-864-9886



MEDIA ADVISORY: 09-178

NASA AND CAFE ANNOUNCE GREEN AIRCRAFT CHALLENGE

WASHINGTON -- The NASA Innovative Partnerships Program and the
Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation today
announced the Green Flight Challenge. The contest is 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 is $1.5 million.
The competition is scheduled for July 2011 at the Charles M. Schulz
Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, Calif. A variety of innovative
experimental aircraft using electrical, solar, bio-fuel or hybrid
propulsion are expected to enter. Several major universities and
aircraft builders have expressed their intention to enter teams in
the challenge.

To win, teams must use cutting-edge technologies in mechanical and
electrical engineering, structures, aerodynamics and thermodynamics.
As a national showcase of "green" technology, the challenge is
expected to help advance all three of the major climate mitigation
initiatives: efficiency, conservation and zero-carbon energy sources.
These technologies will support advances in aviation and may have
broader applications in transportation and energy storage.

The Green Flight Challenge is administered for NASA by CAFE. Founded
in 1981, CAFE is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the
understanding of personal aircraft technologies through research,
analysis and education.

NASA is providing the prize money as part of the Centennial
Challenges
program. The program seeks innovative solutions to problems of
interest to NASA and the nation from diverse and unconventional
sources. Competitors may not receive government funding for their
entries in this challenge.

For information about CAFE and competing in this challenge, visit:

http://cafefoundation.org/v2/main_home.php

For more information about Centennial Challenges, visit:

http://www.ipp.nasa.gov/cc

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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