Originally Posted by
AirBear
More news on electric powered aircraft, this time from EAA Airventure:
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n..._hsmi=74970306
From what they say we won't be seeing larger electric jets anytime soon, here's a key paragraph:
“There are limitations as to what we can do with batteries,” she said. “If you took the best battery today and made it five times more efficient and you wanted to make an [all electric] airliner the size of an [Airbus] A320 [passenger jet], it would weigh six times as much as the aircraft of today without even putting any passengers or cargo on board. The [UAM prototype] vehicles that are out there have a range of about 30 miles. Try to get more than 30 minutes to an hour out of a vehicle the size [of the Vahana] is very challenging today. And the battery technology is going to have to come along much further if we are going to have 100 percent electric vehicles.” She added that Airbus is continuing its exploration into improved battery technology.
Another problem is charge times, she said there's only so much charging you can do in a certain amount of time.
Making batteries five times more efficient (ie specific energy) than today's commercially available batteries equates to the absolute theoretical chemical max of about 1,000 Wh/Kg.
Kerosene specific energy is 12,000 Wh/Kg.
If you have an interest in electric planes, you need to understand that 12 to 1 specific energy advantage of jet fuel. And that's only with a 500% improvement in current batteries (theoretical max).