Agreed, but if that’s all the range your plane winds up with…

How long will it take to recharge a set of batteries? Are they going to be competitive with 30 minute to 1 hour turns with liquid fuels?

I would have thought that a hybrid approach would be used first. One small turbine used to provide electricity to electric motors with a battery back up system and running on bio fairy dust or whatever is on tap next from the fuel trucks.

For the short ranges for which they are practical, yes.

Or just swap batteries.

There are also "liquid" batteries in the development. For those you could simply swap the liquid, drain and refill, and then charge the used liquid at your leisure for later re-use.

I'm confident that charge time won't be an issue (for small planes). Worst case if you're hell bent on electric, use H2 and fuel cells. Still no emissions in the air, other than water. H2 has it's own issues, but would actually provide longer range than batteries of any sort. Although the fuel cells aren't particularly light.

if that’s all the range you end up with, people still aren’t going to be evaluating car vs air for such a trip. They don’t now and won’t in the future

Can we talk about the practicality of these things in the US market?

Who’s going to buy and operate them? The regionals who are dying a slow death who’ve spent all their resources transitioning from the CRJ to the ERJ?

The legacies are investing in electric powered lifts to get people to the airport. They already support the regional lift. Now they’d be adding a third totally different type of fleet that would require new sims, training programs, and mx certifications.

Are they going to ask Uncle Joe (or whoever’s next) to print more money to pay for all this?

Well, I'm more worry about if their autopilot loves to kiss concrete like those Xsla.