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Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

heartaerospace.com

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Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#11

Post by vel0city »

At 120 miles of useful pure electric range, I can't imagine there are many US corridors where that pure electric range makes sense. That's still a range where the door to door time of a car can still win. I wonder why they don't push the idea of it being a hybrid more, as it seems to me a lot of useful routes are going to rely on the generators.

I'd love to see something that can do around 250mi. It would be nice to electrify transit in the Texas Triangle if we end up never being able to actually build useful HSR.

I wish them luck on continuing to try!

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#12

Post by [deleted] »

NitpickLawyer wrote: post #4

> It uses electric motors for zero-emission short hops up to 124 miles and backup reserve generators for an extended hybrid range up to 300–500 miles. I was wondering how they're gonna deal with alternate airports and "fuel" reserves, but it seems they also have generators on board (supposedly used in case of emergency / unplanned detours).

[deleted]

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#13

Post by robin_reala »

cj wrote: post #7
eliben wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During certain hours of the day in California, electricity is essentially free due to solar overproduction, which sometimes causes negative wholesale prices.

I've never quite understood negative electric/gas/oil prices. Are you literally paid for agreeing to receive the energy?

Yep. Last August the total cost to charge my car for the month was -10SEK of about -$1.05 US, as my energy company was trying to put load into its batteries at the times when the grid most needed it.

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#14

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

vel0city wrote: post #11

At 120 miles of useful pure electric range, I can't imagine there are many US corridors where that pure electric range makes sense. That's still a range where the door to door time of a car can still win. I wonder why they don't push the idea of it being a hybrid more, as it seems to me a lot of useful routes are going to rely on the generators. I'd love to see something that can do around 250mi. It would be nice to…

Island hopping is the usual sales pitch for these planes.

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#15

Post by Aboutplants »

VTOL aircraft have the same distance capabilities and make more sense in a lot more scenarios than this, with way more flexibility. It’s obviously larger but I’m just not sure of potential advantages over other modes of transport currently available and in the near future

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#16

Post by mikeyouse »

vel0city wrote: post #11

At 120 miles of useful pure electric range, I can't imagine there are many US corridors where that pure electric range makes sense. That's still a range where the door to door time of a car can still win. I wonder why they don't push the idea of it being a hybrid more, as it seems to me a lot of useful routes are going to rely on the generators. I'd love to see something that can do around 250mi. It would be nice to…

As someone who lives in the Great Lakes region - there are a ton of 100 mile flights that would take 4 hours to drive - often as the first leg in a two-flight trip. Also places like Denver -> Ski resorts (Vail/Aspen/Crested Butte) are 2 - 3hr drives, heavily dependent on road conditions all within the pure-electric range.

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#17

Post by nradov »

vel0city wrote: post #11

At 120 miles of useful pure electric range, I can't imagine there are many US corridors where that pure electric range makes sense. That's still a range where the door to door time of a car can still win. I wonder why they don't push the idea of it being a hybrid more, as it seems to me a lot of useful routes are going to rely on the generators. I'd love to see something that can do around 250mi. It would be nice to…

The best use case might be short flights over water or other geographic obstacles where driving routes might be much longer or impossible. Like Kahului Airport to Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport for example.

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#19

Post by hollow-moe »

spongebobstoes wrote: post #18

could we relax the security around electric planes, because they don't carry as much highly explosive material? that could make it much more convenient and appealing as a travel method

Nope, because we all know about the race to the bottom of all companies and the littlest crack or wiggle room will be used to save a penny and kill people.

Re: Heart aerospace completes first flight of largest electric aircraft

#20

Post by cucumber3732842 »

mikeyouse wrote: post #16
vel0city wrote: post #11

At 120 miles of useful pure electric range, I can't imagine there are many US corridors where that pure electric range makes sense. That's still a range where the door to door time of a car can still win. I wonder why they don't push the idea of it being a hybrid more, as it seems to me a lot of useful routes are going to rely on the generators. I'd love to see something that can do around 250mi. It would be nice to…

As someone who lives in the Great Lakes region - there are a ton of 100 mile flights that would take 4 hours to drive - often as the first leg in a two-flight trip. Also places like Denver -> Ski resorts (Vail/Aspen/Crested Butte) are 2 - 3hr drives, heavily dependent on road conditions all within the pure-electric range.

>Also places like Denver -> Ski resorts (Vail/Aspen/Crested Butte) are 2 - 3hr drives

See also: Boston and NYC to Cape Cod and the Hamptons.

The electric/green angle helps with these kinds of routes too.

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