Electric Flight (Part 6: Sustainable Aviation)

The second common misconception around 'Sustainable Aviation' is that electric aircraft will contribute towards decarbonising the sector in the near-future.

Electric propulsion is currently a fantasy for all but the smallest aircraft, flying very short distances. So it will not decarbonise the main aviation markets any time soon.

Even where it IS viable at small scale and short distances: a more efficient use of green electrical energy is to power Electric Vehicles (EVs) on the ground, rather than travel by air.

[youerny]

I Totally agree on that. The best application for an El-aircraft that make sense in the near future is having a modern alternative 60 yrs old Cessnas, that btw everyone practicing to be a pilot need to flight with. And that’s it. CTO of Airbus make a huge point, even if those monstrous improvements (30x energy density i for batteries if at least 10x the theoretical limit of electrolytic batteries, and out of reach even for the most promising futuristic development in the field (solid state, graphene) just because, you know very well, physics!

“ More electrical aircraft” has been a GE research project to improve inverters and electric drives, to sustain secondary systems as you mentioned, in order to gain a few % of efficiency wherever possible. To be clear, I am truly convinced that improvements in thermodynamic efficiency of the combustion -temperature increase already mentioned for thermodynamic cycle- as well as energy storage in electric form to help the rotor in specific situations, here stepping out of my expertise: maybe increasing a bit the trust during take off? Could overall push total efficiency still higher

[fehzorz]

It will be good for very short flights over water which also have a ground component or where ferries are too slow and infeasible. Something like Toronto to Buffalo might work. Or flights over mountains ranges where roads are necessarily windy.

Also check out Regent - their electric Ekranoplans/Ground effect planes look promising and much faster than ferries (for routes around 200-400km crossing a body of water).

The routes might not even currently be served by commercial flights but with relatively low running costs they might become feasible.

[mehrdadzand]

Why not use mixture of batteries & helium canister placed underneath the batteries in order to reduce extra batteries weight (to get them levitating) in flight and when landing withdrawn back into (in pressurise form) in the canister. That way you can have as many batteries as needed to increase the range without increasing the overall weight of the plane. Alternatively I wonder if magnetic principal can levitate the batters and hence reduce their weight

[nSackStyles]

3 eras of air travel -
1. Piston engine's propeller aircraft
2. Jet engine's airliners
3. Electric Flights

Electrics flights is only a near-term solution
for very short range flights
carrying a very limited number of passengers

Twin Aisle flights consume more fuel than single aisle

80% of aviation emissions come from flight exceeding 1500 km,
a range at which electric flight is not a competitor

1 Kg Fuel for combustion engine = 25 Kg of Batteries for electric engine

Key takeway - Electric flight will not help the current climate crisis