Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation
The Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation ( CAFE Foundation for short ) is a US not-for-profit association for the promotion of the economy of private aircraft based in Santa Rosa, California .
To this end, the company carries out its own measurements and competitions. In-house measuring devices and software were developed for the measurements. The company is supported by NASA , AOPA and the EAA .
In 1981, the year it was founded, the first CAFE 250 race over 250 miles was awarded, in which the greatest possible transport performance is assessed with a fixed amount of fuel. In 1982 the CAFE 400 race was held for the first time, the distance was 400 miles. The assessment was based on the rule of speed x flight distance x payload and a corresponding weighting. The race received international attention and has spawned a number of aircraft designs as unusual or revolutionary as the Rutan Catbird . The races were discontinued at the beginning of the 1990s, as the prize money of only US $ 2,000 no longer offered any significant incentives.
In 1986 the CAFE Triaviathon competition was held for the first time, in which top speed, rate of climb and stall speed are assessed.
2005 was combined with NASA Personal Air Vehicle Centennial Challenge advertised, doped with 250,000 US $ prize for particularly easy to use and efficient private planes.