4 thoughts on “Battery Breakthroughs Bring EV Airliners Closer”
500Wh per Kg is really impressive, 1000 can only be close. To consider the competitor (kerosene, Jet-A), it has an initial energy density of close to 12000 Wh/kg, but since most of it is blown wastefully out the exhaust, with an efficiency of 20 -30%, depending on specific flight regime, then the competitor (in reality) has 2.4, or thereabouts Wh per kg, and those are still used wastefully by comparison with electric power (which is intrinsicly high efficiency)
As with diesel or gasoline for road vehicles, jet fuel has a much more complex and nastier infrastructure than charging, so that’s a great advantage to airports. While some airports now have put in underground fuel tanks, most still have tanker trucks coming in among the baggage carts, the snack trucks, and the “honey” trucks.
3000km commercial passenger flights seems bullish to me, but there’s still a whole lot of plausible advantages with converting shorter or just cargo flights. For liability reasons, I expect the fastest advance to be with cargo company fleets.
500Wh per Kg is really impressive, 1000 can only be close. To consider the competitor (kerosene, Jet-A), it has an initial energy density of close to 12000 Wh/kg, but since most of it is blown wastefully out the exhaust, with an efficiency of 20 -30%, depending on specific flight regime, then the competitor (in reality) has 2.4, or thereabouts Wh per kg, and those are still used wastefully by comparison with electric power (which is intrinsicly high efficiency)
As with diesel or gasoline for road vehicles, jet fuel has a much more complex and nastier infrastructure than charging, so that’s a great advantage to airports. While some airports now have put in underground fuel tanks, most still have tanker trucks coming in among the baggage carts, the snack trucks, and the “honey” trucks.
3000km commercial passenger flights seems bullish to me, but there’s still a whole lot of plausible advantages with converting shorter or just cargo flights. For liability reasons, I expect the fastest advance to be with cargo company fleets.
Did he say “thermal pants”?