Your airliner may be flying electric within a decade

CNN - Money ^ | First published September 27, 2017: 8:23 AM ET | London Staff

[Red Badger]

The auto industry is going electric. Is aviation next?

Major European carrier EasyJet announced Wednesday that it is teaming up with U.S. startup Wright Electric to build an all-electric airliner.

The aircraft they have in mind would handle short routes of 335 miles or less -- think New York to Boston or London to Paris.

EasyJet, a budget airline that specializes in shorter flights, said the new aircraft would cover 20% of its passenger journeys.

The airline said it has been working closely with Wright Electric this year and it hopes to have an electric commercial aircraft flying in the next decade.

"We can envisage a future without jet fuel and we are excited to be part of it. It is now more a matter of when not if a short haul electric plane will fly," said EasyJet CEO Carolyn McCall.

Wright Electric was founded in 2016 by a team of battery chemists, aerospace engineers and electric vehicle experts from NASA, Boeing (BA) and Cessna.

It received funding from Harvard University and startup incubator Y Combinator, which helped fund Dropbox, Reddit and Airbnb. EasyJet did not reveal the financial terms of its partnership with the startup.

Jeffrey Engler, the chief executive of Wright Electric, said that working with EasyJet is "a powerful validation of our technology approach."

EasyJet said the startup has already demonstrated its first two-seater plane, showing it can make the technology work on a smaller scale.

[Yaelle]

No luggage, and you have to weigh less than a jockey to fly.

[robroys woman]

When I think electric cars or other transportation, I think “coal fired”. But that’s just me...

[robroys woman]

And there is the one mentioned in another article that is Fusion powered. That would be nice.

[Red Badger]

Yep, all they have to do is invent fusion....................

[lacrew]

Tesla Model S battery density: 140 WHr/kg

http://enipedia.tudelft.nl/wiki/Tesla_Model_S_Battery

140 WHr = 478 btu

https://www.google.com/search?q=convert+watt+hour+to+btu&rlz=1C1VFKB___US753US753&oq=convert+watt+hour+to+&aqs=chrome.5.0j69i57j0l4.10875j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Energy content jet fuel: 18,800 btu/lb

https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/EvelynGofman.shtml

Convert 18,800 btu/lb to btu/kg = 41,446 btu/kg

https://www.google.com/search?q=convert+btu%2Flb+to+btu%2Fkg&rlz=1C1VFKB___US753US753&oq=convert+btu%2Flb+to+btu%2Fkg&aqs=chrome..69i57j6.10135j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Compare: 478 btu/kg for Tesla battery vs 18,800 btu/kg for jet fuel.

Conclusion: It's more likely to see stokers shoveling coal in an airliner, than there is to be a battery powered airliner.

[robroys woman]

Here's your electric airplane:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/28335399/FF-Flash-Falcon-Electric-Supersonic-Jet

[FreedomPoster]

Bingo. I really don’t see this being technologically feasible. Small quadcopters and such are a very different thing from a commercial airliner.

[Moonman62]

The 787 uses large packs of lithium batteries. They had problems at first, but seem to be OK since a redesign. 787’s fly an incredible amount of miles each day.

[backwoods-engineer]

So. Incredibly. Stupid.

Put a pile of lithium-ion batteries under the passenger seats. What could possibly go wrong?

The high-bypass fanjet engine is the most reliable power plant ever developed by man. Its fuel is so nonvolatile, you can throw a lit match into a pool of it, and it will self-extinguish.

These electric airplane people are just having their "green" fantasies.

[Moonman62]

I just don’t see how they’re going to get the thrust they need while still keeping the plane light (batteries are heavy!) and they’ll have a terrible turn around time because of long recharging.

...

According to their website the plan is to use swappable batteries.

[dangus]

... because, you know... gas-powered vehicles NEVER catch fire.

[SargeK]

Here you go getting all mathy and sciency. We’ve got a narrative to promote, doncha know? We don’t have time for all your physcianics stuff. The planet has a FEVER!

(And needs more cowbell!)

[shibumi]

See post #49.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3589990/posts?page=49#49

[Phlyer]

Compare: 478 btu/kg for Tesla battery vs 18,800 btu/kg for jet fuel.

Bingo!!

Back when I worked for a living, I was working on a solar-powered aircraft. We had to have a way to store energy overnight, and considered all types of storage systems, plus we used (in our analysis) projections of advanced solar cells with four times the efficiency (at eight times the price) of current technology solar cells.

Our total payload was 1000 pounds on an aircraft as big (though lighter) than an airliner.

Math is hard. But in the end, numbers win over wishful thinking.

[RegulatorCountry]

The conversation drifted into solar when I don’t believe anyone has proposed a solar electric passenger “jet,” but rather an electric one.

That aside, the fact remains that 42 foot motorhomes exist, wherein all “house” functions including air conditioning, heat, hot water, stove, microwave, refrigerator, multiple large screen LED televisions and computers are powered by solar alone, from panels installed upon the roof of the motorhome.

I’d love to have one, and have been researching it extensively due to having a classic old GMC motorhome basically fall into my lap very cheaply. As budget permits I’ll be switching to Danhard air conditioning, compressor refrigerator, etcetera in order to keep the power draw as low as possible and I’ll be putting about 1600 watts of solar panels on the roof. The GMC is challenging in that regard because of the (in my opinion beautiful) styling of it, more “fuselage” with no flat roof. But, with the Danhard type A/C the roof will be cleared of obstacles. I plan on a styled, enclosed “rack” system that deploys when camping, mimicking the visual mass of the A/C units and storage pod. That’ll keep it from getting ugly up there.

[backwoods-engineer]

They were lamenting the fact that electric cars don’t do the obvious: cover the car in solar panels so that it is always charging and never loses power. I said there isn’t enough surface area to capture that much energy. The response was uniform: they need a breakthrough in solar cell tech to capture that energy. I politely explained that there is a finite maximum amount of energy that hits each square inch of area and it doesn’t approach the energy requirements for travel. And... I was told it didn’t matter. It is only a matter of investment.

You can't deal with people like this. People like this are why we are slowly descending back into the Dark Ages.

[bigbob]

Batteries are heavy eh?

Fuel weight, based on 6.7 lbs per gallon:

747-200B, 361,700 lbs.
DC-10-10, 178,534 lbs.
DC-10-30, 254,700 lbs.
A300B4-200,108,020 lbs.
A300B4-600, 118,390 lbs.
A310-202, 94,800 lbs.
757-200, 78,658 lbs.
767-200, 104,252 lbs.
767-300, 127,300 lbs.
707-320B, 159,898 lbs.
727-200, 70.920 lbs.
737-200, 34,572 lbs.
737-300, 35,912 lbs.
DC-8-55, 156,733 lbs.
DC-8-73, 162,643 lbs.
L-1011-1, 159,560 lbs.
L-1011-200, 178,360 lbs.
L-1011-500, 213,640 lbs.
DC-9-10, 24,273 lbs.
DC-9-50, 28,596 lbs.
DC9-80, 38,725 lbs.

[backwoods-engineer]

Good analysis and exactly right.

[RegulatorCountry]

Don’t go getting all practical now, we’re getting our collective crank on about anything that didn’t exist in our heyday.

[NorthMountain]

You have only done half of your homework. See #45 for the other half.