Yes, and also a potential 'survivability' advantage by kicking/releasing a side wall emergency to dump any burning battery pack (already x times less chance of fire than engines)...totally impossible with fossil fuel containers in the wings and under belly.
@@kotgc7987 If the chemistry is LiFePo4(not NMC Li-Ion), it can't catch on fire(it can go up to 200C and smoke, in the worst scenario, but doesn't interact with oxygen like NMC), it's literally acting as an additional structure in case of an accident.
Exactly, with a reduction in fuel consumption/costs hopefully smaller cheaper regional flights will be more of a thing. Like more direct city to city flights without having connections to cities out of the way of the direct flight path.
problem will be definitely landing with el. airplanes nowadays they rely on that airplane lands with empty tank so its lighter with batteries you have almost constant weight
Yes but not enough. It needs to get about a hundred times better to EQUAL jet fuel. Let me know when that happens... Electric planes are a pipe dream for all but small low range niche applications.
I always thought of that for cars but I never thought about that for planes. Aside from a battery failure there's really nothing that can go wrong (from a thrust standpoint).
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
@@bishop51807 fuel fires are no joke either and a real risk when planes crash. Fires in general are bad. Battery tech is evolving rapidly to make fuel fires less likely and certainly less explosive that fuel fires. Fuel fires in cars, trucks, etc. are actually the #1 reason for fire trucks to be called out. That's how common they are. Of course, the suggestion that putting fuel that you intentionally burn in a combustion engine is somehow safer from a fire safety point of view than a battery is kind of ridiculous when you think about it. Fuel fires are problem that batteries can solve. Some batteries do burn. And some batteries are more prone to this than others. I'd say the kind of battery that survives certification is not very likely to be the type that spontaneously combusts.
@@JillesvanGurp Agreed, however I would caviet that witht the fact that battery fires burn hotter and for longer so depending on the situation they can still be more dangerious than hydrigon or kerosine.
They can also due mid flight recharge with drone recharge interception like they refuel for jet fuel aircraft. I’m working on this technology with other companies and investors $
This is interesting from the perspective of many smaller, regional airports and their proximity to residential areas. Regulations in the US prevent them from being used more due to noise and air pollution. This could take the air brakes off an entire market segment. I wish more folks would/could look past their cynicism and see that it solves problems other than promising to lower our collective carbon footprint - even though that is important, and if this helps with that, heck yea!
The same is true for electric cars as well. All everybody's talking about is their positive impact on the climate, which is awesome, but there's so much more about them. Cleaner air especially in cities, less noise pollution (again, mostly in cities, the tires are usually the loudest part of a car above 50km/h), mechanically much simpler cars with less moving parts, a smooth and quiet ride for passengers, the option to charge it at home, and - in the future - possibly insane range due to battery improvements.
I wonder however, how much of the noise coming from an airplane originates with the prop, rather than the engine. Electric planes may not be as quiet as we hope.
It was a good idea but the cynicism for me comes from corporations. It Doesn't help the case for electrification that one of the biggest electric automobile manufacturers became a butthole.
As it stands this is just a toy for the 1% tho, it carries way too few people to a distance that can easily be covered by trains at a fraction of the cost. Interesting for sure but the real impact will be having it for trans atlantic or long distance commercial flights
In Germany, the metric system is used. 400 * 0.6 = 240 miles. This distance is not significant, and the takeoff weight is relatively small compared to other aircraft.
When you take into account the need for reserve battery capacity for missed landing approaches and onward flight to an alternate airport, a plane that can fly 400 miles should really only attempt a 400 km. flight plan.
Very cool, that particular plane shape doesn't look really like something optimal for cargo but it's a good start anyway, can't wait to see how DHL will operate them !
There is a big issue with winter and summer at high altitude plus heating cabin and pressurization. and anti-icing etc That takes a lot of electrical juice.
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Have you seen the RAM intakes on the engines? Just add a small fan and you got enough pressure ( as it is done on B787 ). Direct the air over the power MOSFETS and around the coils to heat it. For additional heating and cooling, buy the all direction heat pump from Tesla . For deicing use a rubber leading edge.
You got a good point here.But this is only dynamique air that you are getting from aircraft speed with a small air turbine. it may not be sufficient. Air is less dense and colder at altitude. So if you need to supply lots of pressure and heating and anti-icing,you dont have that available and that create more problems for heating,pressurisation,anti-icing so that makes the airplane flying in restricted environment. the B787 as turbine engines that supply lots of pressure and heating no matter what speed the aircraft is flying. Heating pump from Tesla is design for a car and you probably know that still decrease the car's range. I think an hybrid design like hybrid car is still a better design for now and ad safety value for the time being. @@ArneChristianRosenfeldt
@@danlavigueur2648 B787 makes it a point that there is no connection between engine and cabin for safety. I don't have numbers, but deicing probably needs far more power than cabin heating. People complain about complicated hybrids, meanwhile Prius is 10? years old and counting. Problem is that planes cruise at almost full power unlike typical Prius drivers on the autobahn. Yeah, those turbo Diesel planes probably win.
Why not equip small planes with parachutes that can deploy for the entire aircraft in case of an emergency? This concept could significantly enhance passenger safety. Military tanks can be safely dropped using parachutes, so why not apply the same principle to aviation? By incorporating this feature, we could revolutionize air travel safety, making it one of the best safety plans in the world.
Intellectually I concede that this is a huge improvement over nothing. However, given that the obvious jetfuel equivalent, the Challenger 300, has a range of 3527 miles, Alice has a looooooooooooong way to go.
Only important if you need to cross the continent non-stop or an ocean in a small plane. The red-herring raised in most EV discussions. This will come to dominate regional transportation.
@@markstevens1729 Well, here's to hoping. But I'd still feel a lot more comfortable if they could jack up the range by a good 200%. Maybe some sort of hybrid?
@@Lazarus1095 the stated range is calculated with reserves built-in, same as a dino-drinker. For short-hop flights and road transport, electric will become huge.
I think the way forward is planes with both ICE and BEV. Start the flight on electric and when the batteries run down switch to the ICE. I've seen one that has 2 of each.
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Have you notice that there are a lot of short haul flights between European States and also within Japan inter-cities airport as well (be it passenger or freight flights) ?
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
@@dgsantafedave1 does the bolt have resistive heaters or a heat pump? the type of heaters used in the car have a huge impact on how much range they drain.
I wonder what the tipping point for battery density needs to be for it to match the weight of the fuel put into something like a 747? 500Wh/kg? 750Wh, 1000Wh, 2000Wh? I mean the max fuel weight is 184,000Kg (230k litres) so that's a lot of potential battery capacity. Just a curious thought if anyone had a rough idea?
This has been discussed on other RUclips channels in the past(Real Engineering I think). Those long haul flights are going to be VERY difficult to replace with battery tech. The energy density of jet fuel is just too good.
Within 10 years electric planes will be able to fly about 1000km with currently known battery technology. If new stuff that is tested in various labs works out as hoped, we might get 2000km, but i would expect this will be the limit. So everything above that will be E-Fuels. But environmental benefit for shorter ranges is HUGE, especially as maintenance costs and noise is going down that much. Energy efficiency is 70% better than combustion engines or gas turbines, so electric planes will have a very bright future, and its a phantastic time we are living in, despite our corrupt and criminal governments that try to impose censorship and silence opposition and critics.
In aviation, range is a life-critical performance data, so it is most exact... but can vary with wind, airspeed, temperature, etc... and all that has to be computed during flight planning.
I find it interesting that there are no solar panels on the plane, solar panel technology is also growing in leaps and bounds, which could at the very least lower fuel times, in exchange for a slight weight penalty. I have also long thought that, electrically assisted jet engines would be extremely helpful in lowering fuel burn in the high emission takeoff phase of the flight and to some extent during cruise.
. You realize the plane would always have to fly BETWEEN the Earth & the Sun to have even the tiniest possible gain? A Helium Zeppelin covered in photovoltaic fabric with electric motors would be more like it.
The net power delivery of solar panels is very low and can't make any significant contribution for such a plane. Even for cars it is barely useful. The sun power per square meter maxes below 2kw, which is basically nothing compared to the power demand of such a plane. Realistically they are rather 100 - 300 watts per square meter that sola panels could deliver, and only when the sun shines, which is negligible.
I love comments sections like this. What chance does DHL have with its expertise in moving parcels, internal teams testing the approach and research relative to people who’ve seen this video?
We need to do both. An electric airplane with good range and load powered by a coal power plant is better for the planet than a similar plane burning kerosene at altitude. Making the airplanes motivates building the wind turbines. Building the solar farm motivates building the planes
@@darinherrick9224The reality if using less isn't going to happen, people are selfish. Especially here in the US. The solution is renewable energy and solving the issues around it, including recycling and reusing batteries and all of the wearable components in renewable energy generation like solar panels and wind turbines. We need to be able to recycle solar panels and wind turbines in a clean manner. We need to get to that point like Elon says where all of the batteries are created by recycled lithium, not newly mined lithium.
Wonderful to see electric planes and hope they go mass market soon. I take a 30-minute flight on a regular basis, which is ~150 miles, which these electric planes would be perfect for.
if electricity can do the job but battery is too heavy, is it possible to make a hybrid version that can put a small engine as generator, like hybrid car. the turbine should be run smartly to safe fuel/electricity to deal with high torque and low torque. and use ordinary fuel to generate electricity so a longer range is possible.
Love it, but I'd have gone for swap in/out batteries. Getting the required charging infrastructure in places like the Caribbean could be tricky, the power needed will be sizeable, especially with multiple aircraft.
Solving a problem that accounts for less than 0.04% of emissions in an industry that was preoccupied with efficiency long before environment was ever a consideration.
You know you can generate electricity from thin air or sun light just like in Europe. But in US you will always burn gas, coal, oil because US always goes different just like the imperial system
You are absolutely right. Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream.
please... this dumb argument is so pointless, we had this 15 years ago with EVs, and still people use this nonsense. EVs and electric planes save 70% energy compared to combustion engines, so even if it would be powered by coal it would still be a huge benefit, but same as EVs obviously we will charge them with renewables.
The amount of coal power in the US electricity grid has been in steady decline since 2008. Granted, most of it was replaced by natural gas but that is still twice as good as coal. Eventually nat gas will be replaced by renewables.
The coal argument is ridiculous, as renewables are growing from day to day, and coal powerplants will go away pretty soon. And even if you power an EV or an electric plane with 100% coal power it is still much more environmentally friendly than the ICE version.
@@chriswilliams8607so what in your opinion does.the future look like? In terms of replacing said coal or even natural gas energy sources, what would be replacing it? And Secondly after that what would countries like Chnia and India be doing in reference to coal burning plants.
Not vertical take off capability. Needs longer runway strips EVTO. Even so, there’s a market presence, but not as large as it could have been going vertical take off!
I am curious how traffic control will adjust, if we end up with more smaller aeroplanes with less capacity in the air at any given time. Hope the ev- aviation will work out. Glad to see we are getting past the energy density problem, at least for the shorter distance flights.
For island hoppers electric planes are perfect today. For longer routes a bit more research is needed but it will get there eventually. Transcontinentals are a bit trickier, that's likely not going to change anytime soon
Ships and Cars are releasing more CO² than Aircrafts so what is stated in the video is incorrect. Aeroplanes are releasing 3% of all co² in the world. Ships, Industry, and roads vehicles are releasing a lot more
How much do the batteries weigh and how long do they last? How much diesel was burned to mine the materials for them? What are the battery fire suppression systems? What is the battery performance at high altitude/cold temperature?
Overall efficiency of EVs or electric planes are three times better, so savings are incredibly huge. There is no fire supression system, you only need to get the fumes out of the plane wich is done by metal containers with ventilation openings, all certified electric planes have that already. Battery performance is not altitude or outside air temperature dependant, this is a myth taken from (wrong) EV criticism from clueless people that do not understand, that outside air is no factor, it is only battery temperature the factor. If a car is parked outside for a day or two, battery might be cold which is range limiting, once the battery is warm again (happening while using or charging it) range returns to normal. In an airplane the battery will usually never get cold, because it will be used pretty much 24/7, a ton of batteries does not get cold within a few minutes, it takes hours or days, so no factor here.
yeah, puller props are better. I don't get how Alice can route the wing behind the cabin. In RC planes we put the battery in the nose to stabilize the plane similar to a puller piston engine, but without the noise.
I doubt the service ceiling is much higher than 18k ft. Also, planes don't fly at 60k feet. Usually around 35k ft and that's for regular passenger airliners - this is way smaller and has no business being that high up even if it could.
@@ragnarox16 Between 9,000 and 12,000 metres (30,000 and 40,000 feet), the cruising altitude of most jet aircraft, air temperatures range from −40 to −70 °F (−40 to −57 °C).
In New South Wales Australia, you cannot use the word zero emissions any more and advertising because the competition watchdog quite rightly said that it is not true.
Of all the people being interviewed, I trust the opinion of the pilot the most, as his life LITERALLY depends on a plan that he can trust. If he trusts it, I will trust it.
Really happy to see this on the one hand, but equally, this will be an early waypoint along the way to planes that have significantly better capabilities. Just bring it out asap, and lets get the revolution going.
There may be no specific emissions but i doubt that it uses green electricity using no aluminum , copper , resins , mined no lithium and other exotic minerals and did not have to move 100's of tons of overburden - it would interesting how long it would take to pay back the real unknown costs to the environment - interesting concept though
It's coming. 500wh/kg is available already from CATL in China though still a bit hard to get on the open market probably. There are a few companies working on 700wh/kg now and more is on the way. This plane gets it's current range with probably closer to 200wh/kg. Certifying planes takes a long time so they wouldn't necessarily have the latest and greatest by the time they get certified. But it does mean that the next generation of this plane is indeed going to double or triple its range probably.
Doppelte Spannweite und Liquid Piston APU als Sustainer und das Ding könnte viel mehr als 650km. Wenn man schon Selbstart-Lastensegler baut, dann doch bitte richtig. Und da würden 150kW Generatorleistung ausreichen.
How are we going to generate the electricity to charge this beauty? Nuclear power is "evil". Hydroelectric is "evil". Wind and solar? Clean, until you have to dispose of the used gear. And very few people want them in their "backyard". Otherwise, this new aircraft is way cool.
@@yodaiam1000 dream on. that may be possible if you are simply swapping out batteries, but it also means you are limited to the number of airports that can support that activity.
It is interesting that a company is now working on getting FAA certification for an electric airplane. Unfortunately a number of the problems that electric cars have, these electric airplanes will have the same problems. One problem is the mining of all the materials, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are needed for the batteries has environmental impacts. Also as the airplane gets older its travel range will decrease. Also airports will need to add all this electrical plane charging infrastructure. Also like electric cars this will increase the demand for electricity and more electricity generating stations will need to be added some that burn natural gas, and fuel oil to generate electricity. Also we have had electric car batteries undergo thermal runaway and start on fire. This problem can occur with electric airplanes. Also these airplanes will not run well in cold weather with cold batteries. Also the travel range of these airplanes will always be considerably less than airplanes running on jet fuel and aviation gas. So electric airplanes are not a completely nice thing.
All of the “issues” you mention are non-stoppers in my opinion. Have you ever considered that fuel explodes? It’s like really really flammable… As we start deploying these technologies we’ll learn more about what needs to happen and how. Do not forget just a couple of decades ago, operating kerosene jet engines, leaks, explosions, pumping, exhausts, noise, etc were also all big issues… I wouldn’t worry too much about thermal runaway, if we can get explosions under control sure we can learn to thermally manage metal cilindres (or battery pouches/boxes) We don’t need to add extra electricity generating from burning sources; deployment of renewables is stopping new energy demands and will likely reduce emissions worldwide this year. Something all airports have in common are huge flat roofs, I wonder what could we do to generate that electricity…
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Can you imagine a future of aircraft like this powered by Quantumscape Lithium Metal batteries, charged by perovskite solar cells stored energy in ESS tech Iron Flow Batteries. This would be a truly green operation!
When is the last time energy density improved in batteries? (Hint, a long long time ago). We tend to think of batteries like technology, It rapidly increases in performance while decreasing in size, it just isn't true, and probably never will be
Who cares? How long does it take to charge your phone? Mine takes about an hour. It doesn't matter what the pack size is, the charge time remains more or ll ess the same. It has to do with the acceptable charge rate odmf the cells. Typically 1C for normal cells. Which translates to about an hour at optimum charge rate.
What happens when the electricity goes out from a major storm and you have no ability to charge? What if there are three other aircraft ahead of you waiting to be charged?
Todays batteries are exactly built for that, don't worry. Depending on depth of discharge and chemistry you get between 1000 and 3000 full cycles out of todays batteries.
this is awesome, just wonder how much battery does one need to use current electric battery technology to power a 747? even if it s feasible, is the safety of current technology good enough?
in the easy way you can scale the plane in the video to size of a 747. but in reality bigger planes are to a certain point more efficient, so bigger electric planes are better. but the customers are using for ranges below 1000 km primarily smaller planes, so the companies provide primarily smaller (electric) planes...
long range like a 747 will probably never be possible with batteries, but for flights up to 1000km we will see electric passenger planes within 10 years, and this is amazing and means huge cost and ressource savings.
@@chriswilliams8607 There are hybrids for Cars. I wonder if there would hybrids for 747? like for take off it would use normal engines, and then once in 10000 feets it switches off 2 normal engines and use electricity to power engines?
@@jackjhmc820 Longrange planes have pretty good efficiancy, i think we gain more for the environment to electrify shortrange, as current planes with gas turbines burn huge amounts of fuel while taxiing and during decent, gas turbines cant go below roughly 60% of full power, so they burn insane amounts when idling. An electric engine would only use 2 or 3 % power for taxiing and no power at all for decent. This savings would be maximized for short flights, so i guess getting this done right is the most important step to go.
Super interesting. This plane ought to have very low operational costs. There a lots of areas where ground based transport is not always effective. Regions as diverse as Norway and Africa both spring to mind. Aside from speed of travel, air transport benefit from not requiring expensive infrastructure between A and B, unlike high-speed rail. Many very-high energy density (mass-based) batteries are not too keen on very high charging rates. So really, they should treat the batteries a bit nicer and have time for a coffee break and loading the plane sensibly.
The question stays: In the majority of the US, electricity comes from burning fossil fuels therefore, charging an aircraft by electric power that was produced while burning fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases doesn't completely solve the issue. What can be done to avoid or mitigate this?
When ever somebody talks about a zero emissions machine, it should also be required they note the emissions; to produce energy for the operation of the machine, to discover the materials to manufacture the machine, to produce the materials to manufacture the machine, to refine the materials, to transport the machine then finally to decommission and recycle the machine. We are blind without context.
Same nonsense argument as against EVs, environmental damage with "usual" combustion engines is on such a scale larger that this discussion is ridiculous. Obviously it is the goal to power EVs and electric planes by renewables, which is already almost everywhere the case.
@@chriswilliams8607 No, the full life cycle emissions created if the world fully electrified ($350T IEA budget), would still blow the global carbon limit past tipping point causing runaway climate change. We're out of runway, we don't even have room to switch to electric. We're already at 420ppm atmospheric carbon. All intensive carbon activities by humans must wind back to avoid a catastrophic event, but they won't. We'll push on, most care for a standard of living now, after all when the earth is just 10% older than it is now, the sun will have expanded and killed all life on the planet. Enjoy today, as soon enough, everything is dead.
electrical aviation companies should also experiment putting small turbo petrol engines in electric planes to generate electricity which can be run during flying it may charge batteries enough while flying 400km so that it can fly 100km more
I am so excited about Alice. I wanted to purchase an Alice and start an airline for flights to & from Tacloban city & Cebu. Unfortunately my significant other, noted my failure in converting gas trikes to e-trikes and said no . . . I can still see us flying back & forth 6-8 flights/day . . . fly electric, save the planet!
E-trikes sounds like a great idea! What went wrong? I'd love to introduce them into Cauayan City, Isabela Province!!! Those smelly 2-strokes drive me nuts!
@@gregbailey45 we bought used trikes, put in new electric motors & talked to the mayor about getting routes to run them. To our face the mayor said she wanted to buy one, invited us to participate in a city parade. Meanwhile the government refused to register our trikes. No registration = failure. Note: people around the world have converted older cars to electric motors, registered their cars & drive them around town. But the Philippine government is only interested in NEW EVs. I thought that used trike body with a new electric motor was smart & economical. But the government wants new. New ones are too expensive to make any profits. No hope of profit. so I gave up.
can someone explain this to me? Why not just drop the heavy battery and invest in redundant control lines instead of extra lines for the parachute? I have seen so many videos of failures of parachute opening.
I'm a bit sceptical about the fact that you have to remove parts of the outer skin to access the batteries. That could be a potential point of failure.
I’m thinking not having to pay for aviation fuel also has to be attractive to companies whose profit margins are negatively impacted by fuel industry instability.
They can most likely get some regen from the props windmilling, but aircraft in general rarely need to actively slow down other than after touchdown, so I doubt it will help much.
electric planes are able to recharge batteries on decent, but it's much less than cars, planes only get about 1 or two percent of added range, compared to cars, that get about 20% in normal city traffic.
One thing that intrigues me about EV Aircraft is this. Maximum Take Off Weight versus Maximum Landing Weight. That difference has been the fuel capacity and fuel usage in flight. I do not believe that Batteries get lighter as they discharge in flight???? So how does this essential difference affect the EV's load weights and thus efficiency.
Just make more robust landing gear? Max take off weight of a CRJ 200, a typical regional jet, is right around 53,000 lbs, depending on the company. Max landing weight around 47,000 lbs. The difference is around 10%. Also, the CRJ has no way of dumping fuel, so if an issue occurs at T/O at close to max weight, the plane will need to turn around and make an overweight landing. This happens, often. The mechanics take a look at it, maybe swing the gear and perform a few other checks, and the plane is back in service. I feel like the weight issue has been drummed up far more than the actual reality.
@@xpeterson The weight and balance is something to consider for every flight, how it affect your take off roll, your touchdown, your Landing roll and how your aircraft handles in IMC conditions.
@@bishop51807 that it is. If anything, batteries make those calculations easier, as fuel tanks aren’t draining as you fly, changing your center of gravity. Unfortunately, you will have to take the full battery pack each time, as opposed to having the option on shorter flights to trade out fuel weight for increased payload. But again, all the calculations you mentioned become easier
And fuel catching fire mid flight has never been a problem for jet planes? The same argument is beeing made about electric cars, yet ICE cars catch fire much more often than electric cars.
@@andreasvogler1875I agree with you with cars, but there’s a reason why you can’t travel with large batteries on a plane. You can cut off / dump fuel supply. A runaway ignition on an airplane is scary. They need someway to mitigate the risk.
@@xx133 Portable batteries have limited safety funktions and airlines can't check their integrity. Planes however have much stricter safety and maintenance regulations than cars and laptops and a plane won't care about a few extra kilograms of sensors to check for temperature, expansion and other signs of failure. Batteries usually show signs of failure quite some time in advance, if you know what to look for. I don't know if and what kind of measures the designers have taken, but the FAA and similar organisations will surely demand safty measures.
@@andreasvogler1875 You are right, but it's very difficult to inspect every batter cell to ensure that the dendrite buildup isn't compromising (lithium ion). There would be far more cells involved than in a passenger car. Other battery technologies do exist, but their densities do not match that of lithium ion, yet. I believe we will see safe electric planes when those technologies mature. Batteries are very expensive, the inspections you speak of would be expensive, and as you know we live under capitalism-meaning, corporations will lobby for loosening regulations / regulatory capture in order to maximize profit. However, when these batteries fail, it will be catastrophic. Regardless, how do you dump fuel in case of an emergency crash? Also, See how catastrophic it was for Boeing to change the design of its planes to accommodate larger engines. Even a change in technology is a huge risk. Planes really haven't changed much in the past 60 years. This would be a drastic change to the design of airplanes. I'm not sure how commercially viable it would be for an airplane manufacturer to invest in developing a commercial electric airplane. It took decades of US military funding to make commercial jets a thing. For example, imagine the flexing, or expansion (upon pressurization) of the fuselage, leads to compression/distortion of battery cells over time (see where they are placing those battery cells in their design)... I'm not saying it can't be done, it likely will, but it won't be as easy as people are making it out to be. Just training pilots on the new technology will be difficult.
I like that the design allows to swap batteries in a relatively easy way. There is lots to love about this airplane
Yes, and also a potential 'survivability' advantage by kicking/releasing a side wall emergency to dump any burning battery pack (already x times less chance of fire than engines)...totally impossible with fossil fuel containers in the wings and under belly.
@@kotgc7987 If the chemistry is LiFePo4(not NMC Li-Ion), it can't catch on fire(it can go up to 200C and smoke, in the worst scenario, but doesn't interact with oxygen like NMC), it's literally acting as an additional structure in case of an accident.
Thanks for the reminder, I've heard lithium batteries have no thermal runaway, unlike engine vehicles.@@aliancemd
Exactly, with a reduction in fuel consumption/costs hopefully smaller cheaper regional flights will be more of a thing. Like more direct city to city flights without having connections to cities out of the way of the direct flight path.
problem will be definitely landing with el. airplanes
nowadays they rely on that airplane lands with empty tank so its lighter with batteries you have almost constant weight
Every time battery tec gets an upgrade the plane will just get better
Right on - more density means less weight
Never better than turbine engines, no one wants to fly as slow as a car
Yes but not enough. It needs to get about a hundred times better to EQUAL jet fuel. Let me know when that happens... Electric planes are a pipe dream for all but small low range niche applications.
@@davidkavanagh189 you mean only good for general aviation but not full commercial flights
It will have to be a lot better, lighter, and safer before I will risk my pilots certificate. 0:54
Why don't they say the truth up front. IT IS CHEAPER !!!. Jet Fuel is friggen expensive. The maintenance is a fraction of the price.
Nah I wouldn’t be trusting a battery to run a plane 😂
@@brianellis6880why?
@@christowilliam21 because stone cold said so
But it's more expensive to buy an e-aircraft than comparable conventional aircraft. So I guess they skip that part to not overcomplicate the video
Glad to see it finally about to be operational.
Note, for the operator, much lower maintenance costs are as important as lower fuel cost.
I always thought of that for cars but I never thought about that for planes. Aside from a battery failure there's really nothing that can go wrong (from a thrust standpoint).
@@grantlauzon5237 battery fires are no joke especially on aircraft
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
@@bishop51807 fuel fires are no joke either and a real risk when planes crash. Fires in general are bad. Battery tech is evolving rapidly to make fuel fires less likely and certainly less explosive that fuel fires. Fuel fires in cars, trucks, etc. are actually the #1 reason for fire trucks to be called out. That's how common they are.
Of course, the suggestion that putting fuel that you intentionally burn in a combustion engine is somehow safer from a fire safety point of view than a battery is kind of ridiculous when you think about it. Fuel fires are problem that batteries can solve. Some batteries do burn. And some batteries are more prone to this than others. I'd say the kind of battery that survives certification is not very likely to be the type that spontaneously combusts.
@@JillesvanGurp Agreed, however I would caviet that witht the fact that battery fires burn hotter and for longer so depending on the situation they can still be more dangerious than hydrigon or kerosine.
the average turnaround time for a domestic flight is usually around 45 minutes to 1 hour the ground Crew will say you want watt
They can also due mid flight recharge with drone recharge interception like they refuel for jet fuel aircraft. I’m working on this technology with other companies and investors $
6:25 CCS2 charging.
Something good
Very cool and good charge time!
LoL 😂
so in the case of running low on juice, they can land on a wide enough road where there's Tesla Supercharger
This is interesting from the perspective of many smaller, regional airports and their proximity to residential areas. Regulations in the US prevent them from being used more due to noise and air pollution. This could take the air brakes off an entire market segment.
I wish more folks would/could look past their cynicism and see that it solves problems other than promising to lower our collective carbon footprint - even though that is important, and if this helps with that, heck yea!
Noise is a problem with ALL elwctric vehicles. They're WAY TOO QUIET!
The same is true for electric cars as well. All everybody's talking about is their positive impact on the climate, which is awesome, but there's so much more about them. Cleaner air especially in cities, less noise pollution (again, mostly in cities, the tires are usually the loudest part of a car above 50km/h), mechanically much simpler cars with less moving parts, a smooth and quiet ride for passengers, the option to charge it at home, and - in the future - possibly insane range due to battery improvements.
I wonder however, how much of the noise coming from an airplane originates with the prop, rather than the engine. Electric planes may not be as quiet as we hope.
It was a good idea but the cynicism for me comes from corporations. It Doesn't help the case for electrification that one of the biggest electric automobile manufacturers became a butthole.
As it stands this is just a toy for the 1% tho, it carries way too few people to a distance that can easily be covered by trains at a fraction of the cost. Interesting for sure but the real impact will be having it for trans atlantic or long distance commercial flights
400 km is not 400 miles.
In Germany, the metric system is used. 400 * 0.6 = 240 miles. This distance is not significant, and the takeoff weight is relatively small compared to other aircraft.
I don’t think any of us confused the two
Genius🤣
@@mrtee3477 But it is perfect range and capacity for the flights for which it is replacing, as the video stated.
When you take into account the need for reserve battery capacity for missed landing approaches and onward flight to an alternate airport, a plane that can fly 400 miles should really only attempt a 400 km. flight plan.
Very cool, that particular plane shape doesn't look really like something optimal for cargo but it's a good start anyway, can't wait to see how DHL will operate them !
Using airports allows battery-pack swapping for commercial operators to speed turnaround for scheduled flights.
There is a big issue with winter and summer at high altitude plus heating cabin and pressurization. and anti-icing etc That takes a lot of electrical juice.
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Have you seen the RAM intakes on the engines? Just add a small fan and you got enough pressure ( as it is done on B787 ). Direct the air over the power MOSFETS and around the coils to heat it. For additional heating and cooling, buy the all direction heat pump from Tesla . For deicing use a rubber leading edge.
You got a good point here.But this is only dynamique air that you are getting from aircraft speed with a small air turbine. it may not be sufficient. Air is less dense and colder at altitude. So if you need to supply lots of pressure and heating and anti-icing,you dont have that available and that create more problems for heating,pressurisation,anti-icing so that makes the airplane flying in restricted environment. the B787 as turbine engines that supply lots of pressure and heating no matter what speed the aircraft is flying. Heating pump from Tesla is design for a car and you probably know that still decrease the car's range. I think an hybrid design like hybrid car is still a better design for now and ad safety value for the time being. @@ArneChristianRosenfeldt
@@danlavigueur2648 B787 makes it a point that there is no connection between engine and cabin for safety. I don't have numbers, but deicing probably needs far more power than cabin heating. People complain about complicated hybrids, meanwhile Prius is 10? years old and counting. Problem is that planes cruise at almost full power unlike typical Prius drivers on the autobahn. Yeah, those turbo Diesel planes probably win.
245 miles 😯 that's honestly not that far even for a car range. Unless it can comfortably do 500 without risk of running out I can't see it happening
Battery performance is the key challenge from now on...😎
Why not equip small planes with parachutes that can deploy for the entire aircraft in case of an emergency? This concept could significantly enhance passenger safety.
Military tanks can be safely dropped using parachutes, so why not apply the same principle to aviation? By incorporating this feature, we could revolutionize air travel safety, making it one of the best safety plans in the world.
Parachute weight at the moment.
Intellectually I concede that this is a huge improvement over nothing. However, given that the obvious jetfuel equivalent, the Challenger 300, has a range of 3527 miles, Alice has a looooooooooooong way to go.
Only important if you need to cross the continent non-stop or an ocean in a small plane. The red-herring raised in most EV discussions. This will come to dominate regional transportation.
@@markstevens1729 Well, here's to hoping. But I'd still feel a lot more comfortable if they could jack up the range by a good 200%. Maybe some sort of hybrid?
@@Lazarus1095 the stated range is calculated with reserves built-in, same as a dino-drinker. For short-hop flights and road transport, electric will become huge.
I think the way forward is planes with both ICE and BEV. Start the flight on electric and when the batteries run down switch to the ICE. I've seen one that has 2 of each.
Are they publicly listed on the stock exchange?
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Have you notice that there are a lot of short haul flights between European States and also within Japan inter-cities airport as well (be it passenger or freight flights) ?
We need Project Flashlight ASAP...
Any ice protection? That’s a VFR range, so pretty limiting.
You know that is a good question. I have a bolt EV and when I run the heater and windshield wipers it depletes the batteries really fast!
@@dgsantafedave1 I don't know about the windshield but for the wings and propellers they use a different system than heat.
Be serious. Unless thats a beautiful plane , 1h range/ 250 nm/ 1000 kg payload …vfr reserve ? Price ? Thats absolutly not cost effective.
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
@@dgsantafedave1 does the bolt have resistive heaters or a heat pump? the type of heaters used in the car have a huge impact on how much range they drain.
I wonder what the tipping point for battery density needs to be for it to match the weight of the fuel put into something like a 747? 500Wh/kg? 750Wh, 1000Wh, 2000Wh? I mean the max fuel weight is 184,000Kg (230k litres) so that's a lot of potential battery capacity. Just a curious thought if anyone had a rough idea?
This has been discussed on other RUclips channels in the past(Real Engineering I think). Those long haul flights are going to be VERY difficult to replace with battery tech. The energy density of jet fuel is just too good.
Within 10 years electric planes will be able to fly about 1000km with currently known battery technology. If new stuff that is tested in various labs works out as hoped, we might get 2000km, but i would expect this will be the limit. So everything above that will be E-Fuels. But environmental benefit for shorter ranges is HUGE, especially as maintenance costs and noise is going down that much. Energy efficiency is 70% better than combustion engines or gas turbines, so electric planes will have a very bright future, and its a phantastic time we are living in, despite our corrupt and criminal governments that try to impose censorship and silence opposition and critics.
In Europe routes under 350 km has largely vanished cause of the dense rail network.
Could be excellent for routes from islands though, connecting smaller local airports in a way that isn't economically feasible at the moment.
The USA could use this though
Is the 460 km, like the cars can drive "460" (unless you go to the highway)
In aviation, range is a life-critical performance data, so it is most exact... but can vary with wind, airspeed, temperature, etc... and all that has to be computed during flight planning.
Thank you DW for reporting on this
I have an idea that could extend flight time.
All ears
The big question is in a future with electric airliners with no high fuel costs will a ticket still be as expensive as it is now . Im guessing yes
It's not really the fuel cost savings, it is the efficiency of electric motors. But keeping the cabin warm will be an issue.
I find it interesting that there are no solar panels on the plane, solar panel technology is also growing in leaps and bounds, which could at the very least lower fuel times, in exchange for a slight weight penalty.
I have also long thought that, electrically assisted jet engines would be extremely helpful in lowering fuel burn in the high emission takeoff phase of the flight and to some extent during cruise.
silicon has good mechanical properties. Yet no-one builds stressed wings of car roofs out of it.
. You realize the plane would always have to fly BETWEEN the Earth & the Sun to have even the tiniest possible gain?
A Helium Zeppelin covered in photovoltaic fabric with electric motors would be more like it.
@@TriAmpMyFi Interesting idea.
@@relaxationstation7374 .
lol, what about cargo? At least Made in the USA would gain a competitive shipping advantage.
The net power delivery of solar panels is very low and can't make any significant contribution for such a plane. Even for cars it is barely useful. The sun power per square meter maxes below 2kw, which is basically nothing compared to the power demand of such a plane. Realistically they are rather 100 - 300 watts per square meter that sola panels could deliver, and only when the sun shines, which is negligible.
I love comments sections like this. What chance does DHL have with its expertise in moving parcels, internal teams testing the approach and research relative to people who’ve seen this video?
Good going, but renewable electricity must be increased big time!
We need to do both. An electric airplane with good range and load powered by a coal power plant is better for the planet than a similar plane burning kerosene at altitude. Making the airplanes motivates building the wind turbines. Building the solar farm motivates building the planes
In truth what needs to change big time is energy use. People need to use less. A LOT less.
@@darinherrick9224 Yes! That right there is probably the most overlooked consideration. (Hmm, just a thought: Reduce and reuse only then.. recycle)
@@darinherrick9224The reality if using less isn't going to happen, people are selfish. Especially here in the US. The solution is renewable energy and solving the issues around it, including recycling and reusing batteries and all of the wearable components in renewable energy generation like solar panels and wind turbines. We need to be able to recycle solar panels and wind turbines in a clean manner. We need to get to that point like Elon says where all of the batteries are created by recycled lithium, not newly mined lithium.
@@heyaisdabombPeople largely don't make the choice themselves. You need to force corporations to be less wasteful.
Wonderful to see electric planes and hope they go mass market soon. I take a 30-minute flight on a regular basis, which is ~150 miles, which these electric planes would be perfect for.
Harbour Air here in Vancouver has been testing an electrified Beaver for a few years. Its business is short hops which is perfect for electric.
if electricity can do the job but battery is too heavy, is it possible to make a hybrid version that can put a small engine as generator, like hybrid car. the turbine should be run smartly to safe fuel/electricity to deal with high torque and low torque. and use ordinary fuel to generate electricity so a longer range is possible.
Love it, but I'd have gone for swap in/out batteries. Getting the required charging infrastructure in places like the Caribbean could be tricky, the power needed will be sizeable, especially with multiple aircraft.
I want to hear one.
Low noise is massively important for passenger planes
Solving a problem that accounts for less than 0.04% of emissions in an industry that was preoccupied with efficiency long before environment was ever a consideration.
Agreed.
So in a battery powered plane the dead weight of the battery doesn't change during energy usage unlike a plane with fuel....that's not an issue ?
I suppose it's not an issue only if it's engineered from the get go not to be an issue
@@nighthawk0077 Airplanes carrying dead weight is an issue.
@@Headinavise yet they all still fly. Electric motors weigh 1/4 much as an equivalent ice powerplant, and run much quieter and smoother.
@@nighthawk0077 But ? What about the weight of the batteries. Fuel is heavy but the plane gets lighter as you burn fuel.
@@Headinavise like I said it's engineered to operate like that. You don't seem to be getting it.
It's not zero emissions
It runs on electricity
Something has to generate that electricity
People are flat out lying
You know you can generate electricity from thin air or sun light just like in Europe. But in US you will always burn gas, coal, oil because US always goes different just like the imperial system
You are absolutely right.
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream.
The electricity network is getting cleaner every day with more and more renewables and some nuclear power.
@@Renato.Stiefenhofer.747driverpeople said that about tesla too.
An aircraft that uses coal powered electricity from the utility company probably isn't carbon neutral.
yes thats true but you can also make electricity from renweable sorces like wind solar hydroelectric geothermal etc
please... this dumb argument is so pointless, we had this 15 years ago with EVs, and still people use this nonsense.
EVs and electric planes save 70% energy compared to combustion engines, so even if it would be powered by coal it would still be a huge benefit, but same as EVs obviously we will charge them with renewables.
The amount of coal power in the US electricity grid has been in steady decline since 2008. Granted, most of it was replaced by natural gas but that is still twice as good as coal. Eventually nat gas will be replaced by renewables.
The coal argument is ridiculous, as renewables are growing from day to day, and coal powerplants will go away pretty soon.
And even if you power an EV or an electric plane with 100% coal power it is still much more environmentally friendly than the ICE version.
@@chriswilliams8607so what in your opinion does.the future look like? In terms of replacing said coal or even natural gas energy sources, what would be replacing it? And Secondly after that what would countries like Chnia and India be doing in reference to coal burning plants.
400km means about an hour of flight . . . hmmm . . however, does the window pop?
Not vertical take off capability. Needs longer runway strips EVTO. Even so, there’s a market presence, but not as large as it could have been going vertical take off!
How comes the engines have in inlet and exhaust?
cooling. You may have seen coolant and oil radiators on the tail of WWII warbirds or the front grille on cars.
Well it was nice to hear about this advance in electric powered aircraft. However you could have shown a flight take off!!
I am curious how traffic control will adjust, if we end up with more smaller aeroplanes with less capacity in the air at any given time. Hope the ev- aviation will work out. Glad to see we are getting past the energy density problem, at least for the shorter distance flights.
Great idea, great plane i hope this company succeeds 👍
For island hoppers electric planes are perfect today. For longer routes a bit more research is needed but it will get there eventually. Transcontinentals are a bit trickier, that's likely not going to change anytime soon
Does the cargo version need a pilot ?
Every airplane needs a pilot. In thirty years maybe not, anymore. Not before.
Curious as to why it’s not a pusher design.
prop efficiency and noise.
The application of Alice in its current iteration is now for anyone that Travele any islands anywhere.
Ships and Cars are releasing more CO² than Aircrafts so what is stated in the video is incorrect. Aeroplanes are releasing 3% of all co² in the world. Ships, Industry, and roads vehicles are releasing a lot more
They're not talking about overall CO2 emissions though?
How much do the batteries weigh and how long do they last? How much diesel was burned to mine the materials for them?
What are the battery fire suppression systems?
What is the battery performance at high altitude/cold temperature?
Overall efficiency of EVs or electric planes are three times better, so savings are incredibly huge.
There is no fire supression system, you only need to get the fumes out of the plane wich is done by metal containers with ventilation openings, all certified electric planes have that already.
Battery performance is not altitude or outside air temperature dependant, this is a myth taken from (wrong) EV criticism from clueless people that do not understand, that outside air is no factor, it is only battery temperature the factor. If a car is parked outside for a day or two, battery might be cold which is range limiting, once the battery is warm again (happening while using or charging it) range returns to normal. In an airplane the battery will usually never get cold, because it will be used pretty much 24/7, a ton of batteries does not get cold within a few minutes, it takes hours or days, so no factor here.
@@chriswilliams8607 Why don't you need a fire suppression system?
Turn it back into a turboprop and you’ll have a high selling aircraft. Next iteration of the Piaggio
yeah, puller props are better. I don't get how Alice can route the wing behind the cabin. In RC planes we put the battery in the nose to stabilize the plane similar to a puller piston engine, but without the noise.
with the outside air temperature at -40c and lower at 60,000 ft. how will the battery go then
Car already manage the temperature of their batteries, as do piston engines. As do humans. Power electronics actually likes the cold as do ICEs.
I doubt the service ceiling is much higher than 18k ft.
Also, planes don't fly at 60k feet. Usually around 35k ft and that's for regular passenger airliners - this is way smaller and has no business being that high up even if it could.
outside air temperature is no factor here as the battery temperature will be warm enough when used or charged.
@@ragnarox16 Between 9,000 and 12,000 metres (30,000 and 40,000 feet), the cruising altitude of most jet aircraft, air temperatures range from −40 to −70 °F (−40 to −57 °C).
@@chriswilliams8607 glide towards an airport in a valley in the rockies in winter
In New South Wales Australia, you cannot use the word zero emissions any more and advertising because the competition watchdog quite rightly said that it is not true.
Of all the people being interviewed, I trust the opinion of the pilot the most, as his life LITERALLY depends on a plan that he can trust. If he trusts it, I will trust it.
Really happy to see this on the one hand, but equally, this will be an early waypoint along the way to planes that have significantly better capabilities. Just bring it out asap, and lets get the revolution going.
There may be no specific emissions but i doubt that it uses green electricity using no aluminum , copper , resins , mined no lithium and other exotic minerals and did not have to move 100's of tons of overburden - it would interesting how long it would take to pay back the real unknown costs to the environment - interesting concept though
How exciting, that's my state aswell!
Right?! Super cool to see Washington on the forefront of technology. 😊
One would expect a more sailplane approach with an electric plane. 400km range seems very optimistic.
Zero emissions???Depends where the power to charge the battery came from.And how much was emitted in it’s,and its batteries construction!
Beautiful plane
500kw/kg at pack level is what we need
It's coming. 500wh/kg is available already from CATL in China though still a bit hard to get on the open market probably. There are a few companies working on 700wh/kg now and more is on the way.
This plane gets it's current range with probably closer to 200wh/kg. Certifying planes takes a long time so they wouldn't necessarily have the latest and greatest by the time they get certified. But it does mean that the next generation of this plane is indeed going to double or triple its range probably.
Good to see new technology in aviation..... Hope new battery tech will come in and able to mass produce bigger planes.....
Doppelte Spannweite und Liquid Piston APU als Sustainer und das Ding könnte viel mehr als 650km. Wenn man schon Selbstart-Lastensegler baut, dann doch bitte richtig. Und da würden 150kW Generatorleistung ausreichen.
Air brake with regen? You'd only use it during landing, or crashing but it would still get you some energy back.
How are we going to generate the electricity to charge this beauty? Nuclear power is "evil". Hydroelectric is "evil". Wind and solar? Clean, until you have to dispose of the used gear. And very few people want them in their "backyard".
Otherwise, this new aircraft is way cool.
Imagine If the Engine itself generates electricity then it will be very feasible and batteries can be kept for alternating power.
only problem is the 48 plus hours to charge it
30 minutes
@@yodaiam1000 dream on. that may be possible if you are simply swapping out batteries, but it also means you are limited to the number of airports that can support that activity.
how long it takes to recharge? future is clearly solid state battery, especially for safety reasons.
It is interesting that a company is now working on getting FAA certification for an electric airplane. Unfortunately a number of the problems that electric cars have, these electric airplanes will have the same problems. One problem is the mining of all the materials, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are needed for the batteries has environmental impacts. Also as the airplane gets older its travel range will decrease. Also airports will need to add all this electrical plane charging infrastructure. Also like electric cars this will increase the demand for electricity and more electricity generating stations will need to be added some that burn natural gas, and fuel oil to generate electricity. Also we have had electric car batteries undergo thermal runaway and start on fire. This problem can occur with electric airplanes. Also these airplanes will not run well in cold weather with cold batteries. Also the travel range of these airplanes will always be considerably less than airplanes running on jet fuel and aviation gas. So electric airplanes are not a completely nice thing.
All of the “issues” you mention are non-stoppers in my opinion.
Have you ever considered that fuel explodes? It’s like really really flammable… As we start deploying these technologies we’ll learn more about what needs to happen and how. Do not forget just a couple of decades ago, operating kerosene jet engines, leaks, explosions, pumping, exhausts, noise, etc were also all big issues…
I wouldn’t worry too much about thermal runaway, if we can get explosions under control sure we can learn to thermally manage metal cilindres (or battery pouches/boxes)
We don’t need to add extra electricity generating from burning sources; deployment of renewables is stopping new energy demands and will likely reduce emissions worldwide this year. Something all airports have in common are huge flat roofs, I wonder what could we do to generate that electricity…
Also did you know that cobalt and other rare earths are used to refine gasoline, diesel and other oil products ?
Electric motors... zero emissions? This clip starts with a big lie. Very little noise? The opposite is true. Very loud propellers... and the list goes on...and I'm not even talking about icing conditions or the hazard of a thermal runaway of the batteries... Big fire! Electric airplanes are a joke. No investor would put his money into a lie based dream. And btw, there is no man made climate change... and CO2 is NOT a problem we can or should solve. Regards from the reality, the cockpit of a Jumbojet.
Can you imagine a future of aircraft like this powered by Quantumscape Lithium Metal batteries, charged by perovskite solar cells stored energy in ESS tech Iron Flow Batteries. This would be a truly green operation!
When is the last time energy density improved in batteries? (Hint, a long long time ago). We tend to think of batteries like technology, It rapidly increases in performance while decreasing in size, it just isn't true, and probably never will be
How long does it take to charge the plane or its battery if it’s removed for swap?
Watch the full video
See video
Who cares?
How long does it take to charge your phone?
Mine takes about an hour.
It doesn't matter what the pack size is, the charge time remains more or ll ess the same. It has to do with the acceptable charge rate odmf the cells. Typically 1C for normal cells. Which translates to about an hour at optimum charge rate.
fabulous . now electrify tractors , combines , and trucks . food is more important than trips !
When oil become very expensive it will be done.
Trucks should really be electrified, they are in an almost perfect nisch for doing so.
there already are commercially available electric tractors
What happens when the electricity goes out from a major storm and you have no ability to charge? What if there are three other aircraft ahead of you waiting to be charged?
@@waterlife.1905
The same thing that will happen when there is no electricity to pump the fuel into the trucks etc. that supply the ice aircraft.
following the nature of aircraft (fly as much as possible) the charging cycle must be crazy, need a battery that can cope with that cycle
You can swap batteries easily
Todays batteries are exactly built for that, don't worry. Depending on depth of discharge and chemistry you get between 1000 and 3000 full cycles out of todays batteries.
Considering DHL high charges for parcel delivery, any transportation costs are peanuts.
this is awesome, just wonder how much battery does one need to use current electric battery technology to power a 747? even if it s feasible, is the safety of current technology good enough?
in the easy way you can scale the plane in the video to size of a 747. but in reality bigger planes are to a certain point more efficient, so bigger electric planes are better. but the customers are using for ranges below 1000 km primarily smaller planes, so the companies provide primarily smaller (electric) planes...
long range like a 747 will probably never be possible with batteries, but for flights up to 1000km we will see electric passenger planes within 10 years, and this is amazing and means huge cost and ressource savings.
@@chriswilliams8607 There are hybrids for Cars. I wonder if there would hybrids for 747? like for take off it would use normal engines, and then once in 10000 feets it switches off 2 normal engines and use electricity to power engines?
@@jackjhmc820 Longrange planes have pretty good efficiancy, i think we gain more for the environment to electrify shortrange, as current planes with gas turbines burn huge amounts of fuel while taxiing and during decent, gas turbines cant go below roughly 60% of full power, so they burn insane amounts when idling. An electric engine would only use 2 or 3 % power for taxiing and no power at all for decent. This savings would be maximized for short flights, so i guess getting this done right is the most important step to go.
Not a single word about where the electricity to charge the batteries comes from.
Not needed.... you live under a rock or something
This takes range anxiety to a whole new level 😮
nobody fills up a plane.
This aircraft has areospace abillitys that have eletric airspace and stol
Super interesting. This plane ought to have very low operational costs.
There a lots of areas where ground based transport is not always effective. Regions as diverse as Norway and Africa both spring to mind.
Aside from speed of travel, air transport benefit from not requiring expensive infrastructure between A and B, unlike high-speed rail.
Many very-high energy density (mass-based) batteries are not too keen on very high charging rates. So really, they should treat the batteries a bit nicer and have time for a coffee break and loading the plane sensibly.
Why fixed gears on a extremely streamlined aircraft?
Because it is very slow. Very slow. And very inefficient.
I seems to have a joint to be retracted, just they did not dare to.
Great development.
still someone believes that ev is just a car with battery instead of oil? Behind EV it means everything can be changed, plane, ship, robot ….
The question stays: In the majority of the US, electricity comes from burning fossil fuels therefore, charging an aircraft by electric power that was produced while burning fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases doesn't completely solve the issue. What can be done to avoid or mitigate this?
When ever somebody talks about a zero emissions machine, it should also be required they note the emissions; to produce energy for the operation of the machine, to discover the materials to manufacture the machine, to produce the materials to manufacture the machine, to refine the materials, to transport the machine then finally to decommission and recycle the machine. We are blind without context.
Same nonsense argument as against EVs, environmental damage with "usual" combustion engines is on such a scale larger that this discussion is ridiculous. Obviously it is the goal to power EVs and electric planes by renewables, which is already almost everywhere the case.
@@chriswilliams8607 No, the full life cycle emissions created if the world fully electrified ($350T IEA budget), would still blow the global carbon limit past tipping point causing runaway climate change. We're out of runway, we don't even have room to switch to electric. We're already at 420ppm atmospheric carbon. All intensive carbon activities by humans must wind back to avoid a catastrophic event, but they won't. We'll push on, most care for a standard of living now, after all when the earth is just 10% older than it is now, the sun will have expanded and killed all life on the planet. Enjoy today, as soon enough, everything is dead.
why electric motor have air intake like that of fuel counterpart?
To cool the motor?
electrical aviation companies should also experiment putting small turbo petrol engines in electric planes to generate electricity which can be run during flying
it may charge batteries enough while flying 400km so that it can fly 100km more
I am so excited about Alice. I wanted to purchase an Alice and start an airline for flights to & from Tacloban city & Cebu. Unfortunately my significant other, noted my failure in converting gas trikes to e-trikes and said no . . . I can still see us flying back & forth 6-8 flights/day . . . fly electric, save the planet!
E-trikes sounds like a great idea! What went wrong?
I'd love to introduce them into Cauayan City, Isabela Province!!!
Those smelly 2-strokes drive me nuts!
@@gregbailey45 we bought used trikes, put in new electric motors & talked to the mayor about getting routes to run them. To our face the mayor said she wanted to buy one, invited us to participate in a city parade. Meanwhile the government refused to register our trikes. No registration = failure. Note: people around the world have converted older cars to electric motors, registered their cars & drive them around town. But the Philippine government is only interested in NEW EVs. I thought that used trike body with a new electric motor was smart & economical. But the government wants new. New ones are too expensive to make any profits. No hope of profit. so I gave up.
That plane should have a parachute system for the unforeseen emergency.
can someone explain this to me? Why not just drop the heavy battery and invest in redundant control lines instead of extra lines for the parachute? I have seen so many videos of failures of parachute opening.
I'm a bit sceptical about the fact that you have to remove parts of the outer skin to access the batteries. That could be a potential point of failure.
Audio would’ve been nice.
Use graphene super capacitor battery technology as a game changer to win the game
I’m thinking not having to pay for aviation fuel also has to be attractive to companies whose profit margins are negatively impacted by fuel industry instability.
I'd swap out 1/2 of the pack space with an aluminum air battery. that would gain you cross country performance.
Yes, but only one cycle, that would be a very expensive trip.
You can build some sort of
"Turbo-engines" that can be used as generators when slowing down, get some energy back in the battery.
They can most likely get some regen from the props windmilling, but aircraft in general rarely need to actively slow down other than after touchdown, so I doubt it will help much.
electric planes are able to recharge batteries on decent, but it's much less than cars, planes only get about 1 or two percent of added range, compared to cars, that get about 20% in normal city traffic.
One thing that intrigues me about EV Aircraft is this. Maximum Take Off Weight versus Maximum Landing Weight. That difference has been the fuel capacity and fuel usage in flight. I do not believe that Batteries get lighter as they discharge in flight???? So how does this essential difference affect the EV's load weights and thus efficiency.
Just make more robust landing gear? Max take off weight of a CRJ 200, a typical regional jet, is right around 53,000 lbs, depending on the company. Max landing weight around 47,000 lbs. The difference is around 10%.
Also, the CRJ has no way of dumping fuel, so if an issue occurs at T/O at close to max weight, the plane will need to turn around and make an overweight landing. This happens, often. The mechanics take a look at it, maybe swing the gear and perform a few other checks, and the plane is back in service.
I feel like the weight issue has been drummed up far more than the actual reality.
@@xpeterson The weight and balance is something to consider for every flight, how it affect your take off roll, your touchdown, your Landing roll and how your aircraft handles in IMC conditions.
@@bishop51807 that it is. If anything, batteries make those calculations easier, as fuel tanks aren’t draining as you fly, changing your center of gravity.
Unfortunately, you will have to take the full battery pack each time, as opposed to having the option on shorter flights to trade out fuel weight for increased payload. But again, all the calculations you mentioned become easier
this is great but what is the range with full loading ?
:15
400 km.
See video
if the battery catches fire in the air it's game over.
And fuel catching fire mid flight has never been a problem for jet planes? The same argument is beeing made about electric cars, yet ICE cars catch fire much more often than electric cars.
@@andreasvogler1875 😯😲😧
@@andreasvogler1875I agree with you with cars, but there’s a reason why you can’t travel with large batteries on a plane. You can cut off / dump fuel supply. A runaway ignition on an airplane is scary. They need someway to mitigate the risk.
@@xx133 Portable batteries have limited safety funktions and airlines can't check their integrity. Planes however have much stricter safety and maintenance regulations than cars and laptops and a plane won't care about a few extra kilograms of sensors to check for temperature, expansion and other signs of failure. Batteries usually show signs of failure quite some time in advance, if you know what to look for. I don't know if and what kind of measures the designers have taken, but the FAA and similar organisations will surely demand safty measures.
@@andreasvogler1875 You are right, but it's very difficult to inspect every batter cell to ensure that the dendrite buildup isn't compromising (lithium ion). There would be far more cells involved than in a passenger car. Other battery technologies do exist, but their densities do not match that of lithium ion, yet. I believe we will see safe electric planes when those technologies mature.
Batteries are very expensive, the inspections you speak of would be expensive, and as you know we live under capitalism-meaning, corporations will lobby for loosening regulations / regulatory capture in order to maximize profit. However, when these batteries fail, it will be catastrophic.
Regardless, how do you dump fuel in case of an emergency crash?
Also, See how catastrophic it was for Boeing to change the design of its planes to accommodate larger engines.
Even a change in technology is a huge risk. Planes really haven't changed much in the past 60 years. This would be a drastic change to the design of airplanes. I'm not sure how commercially viable it would be for an airplane manufacturer to invest in developing a commercial electric airplane. It took decades of US military funding to make commercial jets a thing.
For example, imagine the flexing, or expansion (upon pressurization) of the fuselage, leads to compression/distortion of battery cells over time (see where they are placing those battery cells in their design)...
I'm not saying it can't be done, it likely will, but it won't be as easy as people are making it out to be. Just training pilots on the new technology will be difficult.
Hopefully battery technologies get lighter to improve passenger or freight availability.