Up, Up and Away! World's largest all-electric aircraft takes to the skies for the first time making a 30-minute flight over Washington State-(100 mile range...)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk ^

[RomanSoldier19]

Up, Up and Away! World's largest all-electric aircraft takes to the skies for the first time making a 30-minute flight over Washington State

A single test pilot flew the all-electric aircraft over Moses Lake in Washington

MagniX have added their 750-watt electric motor to a Cessna Grand Caravan

It can seat up to nine people and required few changes to make it all electric

They hope to have a 100-mile range commercial version on sale in 2021

[Zathras]

LOL!

[TexasGator]

"Or, jump in the car and start driving in the general direction you plan to travel,"

hmmm ....

[Psalm 73]

"They hope to have a 100-mile range commercial version on sale in 2021"

Hoping for a 100-mile range? Talk about setting a low bar!

[Scrambler Bob]

Climb like heck.

Drop the expended battery pack (glide it back to airport, could even recharge some using reverse propeller).

Then glide aircraft to destination.

I learned this approach from driving a hybrid, except I don’t drop the battery. Just coast down hills after climbing.

In this case /s becomes /ns = not serious

[central_va]

I’ll bet the CIA wants one painted all black.

[Zathras]

And as I tell people: “All the easy stuff has already been invented”

[Hatteras]

100 miles range for an aircraft is a joke.

Stay away from those Wright brothers, Junior. All that fiddling around with that flying stuff is just going to get them in trouble. Ain't got a licka sense b'tween them...

[Harpotoo]

Damn I was waiting to to a real passenger airline or something worthy of a Rapper and it’s entourage!-)

[central_va]

Why can’t the propeller generate electricity and charge the batteries? /sarc

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...but battery technology needs to improve first.

We've been hearing that for...um...all of our lives.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

100 miles range for an aircraft is a joke.

Simple. Just build Tesla power coils along the flight path and charge the air with electricity.

[TexasGator]

"How are electric airplanes ever gonna carry 300...or even 100...people,with luggage,for anything more than 50 miles?"

LOL! One size fits all?

[TexasGator]

“in any of the planes I flew (fighters/trainers of course) 100 mile range would have me declaring min fuel at best and emergency fuel at worst.”

Your post does not make sense.

[EEGator]

LOL, you love being the Devil’s Advocate. :)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

So it will be great for getting from the Oakland airport to the San Francisco airport. Or from LaGuardia to JFK or Newark. Or O’Hare to Midway.

That’s not even enough flight time to go sightseeing.

[Buckeye McFrog]

So the FAA is run by greenies who would rather have a lower carbon footprint than avoid having this thing drop out of the sky and crash through someone’s roof?

Come to think of it, that does sound about right.

[Gay State Conservative]

Temperatures at 35,000 feet above sea level are routinely -50F...even in summer.Batteries don’t perform well at 0F let alone -50.

[TexasGator]

“So the FAA is run by greenies who would rather have a lower carbon footprint than avoid having this thing drop out of the sky and crash through someone’s roof?”

I have no idea what your point is!

[Magnum44]

So when you spec aircraft, you spec in absolute limits. No airplane owners manual I know of factors in the FAA restrictions on top of those. Thats up to the pilot to sort out. I'm just reading this from a pilots perspective. A physical 100 mile range at some speed gives you an expected time of flight, from which you must subtract reserves. But maybe they are describing a 100 mile limit AFTER all the reserves are factored in. Ok. Now I can at least get out of the area of the airport I launched from.

Is this affordable/profitable? I only know a new Caravan costs about 1.5 million and I expect an electric conversion wont be any cheaper, so you best have a business plan for this. A business plan that includes 100 mile range limits and down time for recharging batteries. I dont see FedEx switching to electric any time soon.

Its good to have time/money to experiment. But the gas engine, particularly the turbine, is pretty hard to beat. And no, I am not concerned about the carbon footprint or the noise that results.

[RomanSoldier19]