Posted on 09/17/2022 6:33:31 PM PDT by lowbridge
You still can’t pack a lithium battery in your checked luggage, but by decade’s end you may be held aloft by aircraft engines powered by lithium batteries.
Thursday, Air Canada announced a purchase agreement with Heart Aerospace for 30 of its 30-passenger ES-30 electric-hybrid aircraft it plans to put into service in 2028.
Last year, United Airlines announced the purchase of 100 Heart Aerospace 19-seat all-electric ES-19 planes, and its regional partner, Mesa Airlines (probably better know as United Express), said it was also purchasing 100 ES-19 aircraft, Business Insider reported.
United’s venture capital fund, United Airlines Ventures, joined Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Mesa Airlines in investing in Heart Aerospace, a Swedish startup, with hopes of taking delivery of ES-19 planes by 2026.
Electric planes operate completely on battery power; electric-hybrids feature on-board supplemental generators that use standard aviation fuel.
The electric or electric-hybrid aircraft are envisioned for use in short-haul regional and commuter service. Turboprop planes have long been used in this service but customer demand forced regional carriers to switch to small jets.
Using jets for short hauls is very expensive, according to a Business Insider report from 2020. Electric planes are limited in range, but with lower operating costs than jets, they might be workable in regional service.
That’s apparently the direction Air Canada, United and Mesa are going — electric vehicles for short hauls.
The goal of the ES-19 is a range of 250 miles by the end of the decade. Air Canada said the ES-30 hybrid can fly all-electric 124 miles and 244 miles with its supplemental generators. The range more than doubles to 500 miles if the plane carries only 25 passengers instead of 30.
But here come the problems. First of all, reduction of passenger load on the ES-30 to increase range is
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
You are a f***in’ moron.
Agree. It doesn’t make any economic sense either.
Everything the left does is stupid and counterproductive.
You participate in a HOA, don’t you, you OCD-ridden puke.
Must be a Babylon Bee article.
Should “Let’s Go Brandon” be banned?
Should "Let's Go Brandon" be banned?
Waste of money and resources.
How do the numbers not add up?
It is not the maintenance cost. It’s the weight. Jet Fuel or Gasoline has roughly one hundred times as much energy per pound as a battery. When you have to lift all that weight in an airplane, the numbers do not add up.
A 180 pound man weighs as much as 30 gallons of fuel. How far can you fly a 180 pound man with thirty gallons of fuel? Quite far, if you are clever about it. From New York to Australia, in the extreme case.
But how far can you fly that man with a third of a gallon of fuel? Not very far at all. To maintain a 45 minute reserve on board, almost any aircraft you can imagine that is capable of getting off the ground would have to land as soon as it is airborne.
Good comeback... 🤣🤣🤣
Not mention stating not to use f-words, c-words, sh-words etc is actually masking those words
“How do the numbers not add up?” A Tesla battery pack weighs 1,200 pounds and has the same power output as 10 gallons of gasoline which weighs 80 pounds. When you are trying to make something fly this is a problem.
Cost estimates for an electric motor for a plane for which there is not even one prototype, are wishful thinking at best.
“don’t lithium batteries loose half their energy in cold weather...not to mention a complete freeze.”
Right, and at 30,000 feet it is 50 degrees below zero. Not that an electric plane could ever get to 30,000 feet.
I assume that these would have to use propellers for propulsion, so half the speed of a jet; at best.
ML/NJ
Just throwing some numbers out there. Toronto to Montreal is about 350 miles, so the only plane that could make this flight is the one with 25 passengers. If a ticket cost $300, that brings about $7,500 per flight. I have no idea of the costs of flying a commercial airplane, but that doesn’t strike me as being profitable.
Not just Canada.
It’s colder at altitude everywhere.
Here in Indiana it’s currently 80F on the ground and 15F at 18000 feet, -2F at 24000 feet.
“Electric planes operate completely on battery power; electric-hybrids feature on-board supplemental generators that use standard aviation fuel.”
EV’s are best suited for commuter travel. These planes may be the same. If the short haul planes make economic sense they will happen.
The environment doesn’t give a whit. FReepers complaining doesn’t matter at all. If they are profitable airlines will use them WHEN APPROPRIATE.
“… some inconvenient truths about lithium-ion battery fires.”
Life is not risk free.
There are risks in flying in an aluminum tube filled with jet fuel. And if I’m in the air I do not give a damn about how long the fire will burn after the crash. I’ll be just as dead.
***You still can’t pack a lithium battery in your checked luggage***, but by decade’s end ***you may be held aloft by aircraft engines powered by lithium batteries.***
The plane better come stock with ejector seats.
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