electric airplane

[Snagglefoot]

The latest stuff coming down the line are electric planes that are hybrids. That is, they have electric motors with some batteries charged up to take off, and then a hybrid generator system to provide electricity to the motors for cruising and landing. Lord help me it’s true and even Air Canada has taken the bait. DHL is not alone.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I’m going to call this fake news. It has never flown, let alone commercial in 3 years. Can we revisit this in a year? There is no way it has the energy density to fly 440 miles. We had a electric outfitted bush plane in Vancouver, BC take off, raise it’s pontoons above the water, fly for three minutes, then run out of power and land in the water again. Big achievement. Yet the promoters kept a straight face and the CBC, a national news network carried the story. It’s sad really.

Hello boys and girls. It’s a year later, so now they have two years to deliver on their promise. They are no closer, but the CEO is probably siphoning a nice salary from the pigeons who invested. They did achieve 8 minutes of flight but sorry, no packages got delivered.

 

[Cujet]

Eviation is already cutting the range numbers in half. 250NM range with VFR reserves (nil) . Add in the wintertime headwinds (we had 143Kts on the nose the other day) and this thing can go nowhere.

By way of comparison, and using the exact same criteria, my lowly Cessna Cardinal RG has 858NM range....

 

[Snagglefoot]

So now they are thinking 2027 will be the date to fly 440 miles. Meanwhile the management team is rolling it in. What a Ponzi scheme.

 

[Cujet]

So now they are thinking 2027 will be the date to fly 440 miles. Meanwhile the management team is rolling it in. What a Ponzi scheme.

Battery energy density is not advancing anywhere near quickly enough to achieve that. 5 years down the road they will fly 5% more miles. In fact, battery tech is not really advancing at all, it is being refined and honed into perfection. The core technology remains unchanged, lithium being well understood, and one of the most active metals on the periodic chart, the number of ions we can move is limited by this, and won't be surpassed anytime soon.

Solid state batteries eliminate the conventional anode, and there is promise of 30% gain there, at extreme cost, with stunning structural requirements and narrow operating temperature requirements.

What we will see is possibly a 10% improvement in affordable-battery energy density over the next 10 years. The reason the gains are low, is that most of the improvements have already been implemented.

Dreamers can keep hoping for a miracle. Throwing money at it won't change the periodic chart.

 

[barryh]

I hope it's good at gliding. It'll need to be.

 

[BusyLittleShop]

Electric airplanes do not know how to conduct themselves on the question of range...

 

[john_pifer]

I think this is a case of executives wanting to signal their virtue and show how committed to electric and green they are, but severely lacking in the engineering knowledge that would allow them to understand the limitations.

Or, perhaps theyre aware of the limitations, and are just “hoping” that the technology catches up.

Or…maybe they don’t really care about the fact that these things wont really be useful in any sort of way, but they think the PR/advertising value alone will be worth the cost.

 

[Cujet]

I think this is a case of executives wanting to signal their virtue and show how committed to electric and green they are, but severely lacking in the engineering knowledge that would allow them to understand the limitations.

Or, perhaps theyre aware of the limitations, and are just “hoping” that the technology catches up.

Or…maybe they don’t really care about the fact that these things wont really be useful in any sort of way, but they think the PR/advertising value alone will be worth the cost.

I chalk it up to ignorance.

I do think the Alice airplane looks cool with it's high aspect ratio wings (a nice nod to reducing lift induced drag) and the twin tail mounted engines, er, ah, motors.. And, there is no question in my mind, the design imparts some range benefit along with significant operational limits.

 

[Astro14]

I chalk it up to ignorance.

I do think the Alice airplane looks cool with it's high aspect ratio wings (a nice nod to reducing lift induced drag) and the twin tail mounted engines, er, ah, motors.. And, there is no question in my mind, the design imparts some range benefit along with significant operational limits.

Yeah, like low crosswind landing performance.