Posted on 01/31/2024 12:57:03 PM PST by Red Badger
Electra, a next-gen aerospace company with a mission to help decarbonize aviation and open new air transportation markets, today announced its achievement of pre-order sales of over 2,000 electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft with a market value exceeding $8 billion. Electra passed the order milestone on January 19th when it signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with JetSetGo Aviation Services Private Ltd. ("JetSetGo") at Wings India 2024, in addition to recent LOIs with travel industry leaders LYGG ("LYGG") in Finland and Charm Aviation, LLC ("Charm") in New York City to introduce Electra's eSTOL aircraft in their respective markets.
Electra's order book underscores strong interest from a broad array of flight operators across diverse markets. These operators are opting for Electra's eSTOL aircraft to offer a more convenient and sustainable air travel experience for their customers. Whether facilitating short-distance flights from urban vertiports, covering longer journeys of up to 500 miles to regional airports, or flying adventure tours or medical missions to locations without ground infrastructure, Electra's partners value the unparalleled flexibility, safety, and economics of Electra's eSTOL aircraft.
JetSetGo Aviation Services Partnership
JetSetGo, India's first marketplace for private jet and helicopter charters, operates India's largest on-demand aircraft fleet. Electra and JetSetGo are collaborating to explore relevant markets and identify new routes using eSTOL capabilities. These routes will establish vital connectivity between India's cities and regional transportation hubs for communities underserved by flight.
"India's geography and demographics make it an ideal launch market for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). We want to lead the transformation of urban and regional connectivity and believe Electra is the right partner with the technology to make this vision a reality," remarked Kanika Tekriwal, JetSetGo's Chief Operating Officer (CEO) and co-founder.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
Dead batteries in flight
Afternoon Free-Fall Fright.....
(sorry - had to lol)
In my option, this looks more like vaporware than anything close to FAA certification.
I’m thinking they. Ould have a battery fire or explosion in flight.
Short Take-Off, Short Flight, Short Landing…….
“I’ll order a fleet of 250 or so! Right now! Make that a $9 billion pre-order book!!”
while you’re at it, please pre-order an extra fleet for me as well ...
i figure we can always cancel at any time, esp. when that company continuously misses claimed production targets ...
“today announced its achievement of pre-order sales of over 2,000 electric short takeoff and landing (eSTOL) aircraft with a market value exceeding $8 billion.”
probably like all of those fake “pre-orders” for Lordstown Motors:
“The Lordstown Motors Mirage: Fake Orders, Undisclosed Production Hurdles, And A Prototype Inferno”
https://hindenburgresearch.com/lordstown/
Time to invest into manufacturing those ultra-long extension cords...
The folks who are intent on “greening” air vehicles have a lot of marketing/convincing to do!
I think EV aircraft are a pipe dream and kind of “scammy,” FRankly — I will not be investing in an EV airplane!
There is certainly a lot of government money chasing that EV dream, though, mostly taken without permission FRom us poor suffering taxpayers!
As a pilot, however, I am intrigued by the notion of clever people fashioning a workable hybrid powerplant/propulsion package for corporate sized (up to say, 20 seats) and smaller aircraft.
This particular demo aircraft is a hybrid; it uses some sort of ICE engine, or perhaps a small turbine engine to run the generator for those 8 electric motors. [You will note that the power source for the fans is not mentioned.]
Its STOL performance is enhanced by 8 fans blowing a lotta air over the wing.
I don’t believe a hybrid airliner would prove its worth, but I could be wrong.
A 70,000 to 99,000 lb. thrust electric fan is fascinating to contemplate, though.
Keep in mind that the fan on the 2 PW 4000s hanging off the wing of your Boeing 777 is 112 inches in diameter! That is 9 feet 4 inches! A VERY BIG FAN!
Electric motor technology has a long way to go to match or out power the PW 4000 series!
I’ll take the John Denver Model.
The electric drivetrain makes perfect sense. Multiple high density motors that don’t have a single point of failure and very long MTBF means these will be very safe. The whole wing being in the prop wash is why this thing can take off nearly vertical the wing sits in 100mph prop wash from zero zero conditions. Forget a fully battery power source. Put just enough batteries to smooth out the peaks and valleys of a dedicated gas turbine driving a 400V alternator while burning high density synthetic jet fuel if it makes the greens happy. Have enough battery pack to also bring it down to a short field emergency landing if the turbine fails mid flight.
This is how you should be using the advancements of electric motor power density which is now ten times combustion engines or more. Some axial flux motors have 20hp per lb density no ice motor can touch that not even gas turbines at 6:1 typical turbo ICE aircraft engines are in the 1.5:1 or less none exceeds 2:1 that’s with 100 octane LL fuel which is being phased out 87/93UL is worse. There is nothing wrong with using gas turbines to drive electric generators to power a fully electric flight driveline. High speed ships use this same type of set up every day. Gas turbines driving generators to electric motors on the props it’s the most power dense way to turn diesels/jet fuel into locomotion. Electrics have vastly exceeded mechanical gearboxes for decades now when it comes to megawatt level energy flows.
The Helio Courier didn't have any of that electronical gimcrackery and it would take off at just 30 mph.
I once saw one land in a strong headwind and at touchdown it was backing up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helio_Courier
Everything about a helicopter is 3-5 times more expensive than a fixed wing -- from purchase price to maintenance to fuel costs -- of comparable capabilities.
“heard of a helicopter.”
A helicopter has a single point of failure it’s called the Jesus nut for a reason.If that single bolt fails you will be talking to Jesus there is no recovery possible. Helicopters cannot exceed about 250mph in horizontal velocity this is a limit of physics. Helicopters are also terribly efficient in long distance high speed travels see the above physics limit. A EStol has multiple motors the chances of all failing at one is virtually zero. Wore them up every other one on a dedicated power bus with crosslinks have two batteries and two busbar lines. Feed those with a single or better yet redundant gas turbo alternators on separate electric buslines. This way you need four time failure to bring down the aircraft both turbines need to fail then both redundant power bus must fail. Keep enough batteries to make a short field emergency landing if both turbines fail.
Having put hundreds of hours in helos all over this planet they are machines that have been trying to kill you since it left the factory. Lose a transmission everyone dies, lose the Jesus nut everyone dies, lose the tail rotor control or the rotor itself due to FOD everyone dies you get the picture.
Why would they refer to an airplane as an eSTOL?
Lets hope it doesn’t live up to its name that sounds like STALL!
Hybrids will be the future of the greens are told to pound sand the whole battery nonsense is greenwashing to appease the climatecommies call them what they are. There are a number of companies already working on hybrid electric aircraft. Boeing is I have family that works for Boeing and they are working on a ESVtol airtaxi that’s not public yet. The turbines are in the 1-2 megawatt range that’s 2000hp class more than enough for a 50 seat regional airtaxi. There are no less than three companies also working on fuel cells in the 2 megawatt range with weights equal too a gas turbine of same output. Solid oxide fuel cells can use anything with hydrogen and or carbon in it. Forget liquid H2, compressed H2 or CH4 or C2H8 all have three times the energy density without cryogenic temperatures. SOFC can also use JP8 directly same for JetA 60% efficiency vs 35% for a gas turbine is the driving force for SOFC.
Estol means electric short takeoff and landing.
The next gen will be ESVtol that’s electric short or vertical takeoff and landing. Tilt the wings up or the rotors and your stol can now hover and takeoff vertically. This matters in high density cities where VTOL pads could be on rooftops. Having a 35mph takeoff run means a few hundred feet at most. Too long for rooftops but along a waterway think the East River in Manhattan on a pier or in the suburbs where a 400 foot square patch of.land is not 10 million bucks it’s perfect.
I was in a bush plane in AK where we came in for a off runway landing with a strong headwind on a sand bank we were flying backwards relative to the sand bank our pilot had to goose the engine to bring us to a a halt relative to the ground we landed with zero horizontal velocity just settled out of the sky on too the huge tundra tires bounced twice then stated to roll backwards before he got the brakes locked up. Probably 40 knot head winds.
I agree that hybrids are the way to go.
Just don’t see, in the commercial arena, a hybrid aircraft as being useful for anything more than short range commuter type operations.
Hybrid 777? I doubt it.
I know what it means, but it sounds like STALL. It was a poor attempt at humor.
No thanks. I’ll stick with the Boeing 737 Max 9.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.