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Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

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Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#151

Post by skanga »

gamegoblin wrote: post #99

I recently had a pie-in-the-sky business idea and I would love for someone who knows more about the industry why it will definitely fail. I assume it's unworkable for a lot of reasons, but it is just plausible enough to be a fun idea for a sci-fi novel. Get a fleet of 2-4 seater unpowered glider planes [1] Get a bunch of rural properties spaced ~100km apart. Put little glider landing and launch strips on each propert…

1. Use it for CARGO only. Air freight is a huge business. 2. Do NOT fly in poor weather. Use it ONLY when conditions are favorable.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#152

Post by EastLondonCoder »

Tossrock wrote: post #138
tadfisher wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery swaps could be viable, barring some complications in gate infrastructure and airframe design. Obviously this would be impossible if airframe designers incorporate battery cells in structural members, as some suggest to offset the weight penalty.

I've said for a while that electric planes are the perfect use case for aluminum-air batteries. Aluminum-air batteries have up to 8x the energy density of lithium ion, but are not rechargeable, so using them only makes sense if you have a system to recycle the used batteries. This doesn't make a ton of sense with cars, because cars are constantly going from random place to random place, and having to include a stop a…

Apparently Eviation is looking into aluminium air batteries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eviation_Alice

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#153

Post by ehnto »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #128

One of the things that helped Southwest dominate in the short-haul space, particularly in the Texas Triangle, was optimizing "turn-time" with a target of less than 10 minutes to both deplane and board passengers (10 minutes!)[0] I wonder how lengthy charge cycles will affect the viability of fast turn times, especially for the short-haul segments that they're targeting for these new airliners. It seems like they'll n…

That's part of what made high speed rail so compelling. When done well you can be on the train, sat down and moving in just a few minutes. No airport security, long ticketing lines, baggage check-ins or fuss at the gate. Just walk in, bags in the overhead, sit down and away you go.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#154

Post by kaba0 »

iagovar wrote: post #89
gspr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Large train stations are far more common than large airports in Europe, so you got this the wrong way around.

? I don't think so? Every large city has both a train station and a large airport.

Due to the nature of the two, train stations are usually in the center of cities, while airports have to be quite outside.

Also, in my experience there are usually more than one train station in larger cities but even smaller ones have them. While airports are only a few even at a country level.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#155

Post by kaba0 »

gamegoblin wrote: post #149
kaba0 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than the already mentioned parts, wouldn’t the acceleration be too great for your average passenger?

On a 1km runway you could get up to 700kph with 3g of acceleration over 10 seconds. I think some rollercoasters pull higher G's than that.

Oh, I imagined a much smaller runway — of course longer ones could be more than good from this aspect.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#156

Post by squeaky-clean »

gamegoblin wrote: post #149
kaba0 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than the already mentioned parts, wouldn’t the acceleration be too great for your average passenger?

On a 1km runway you could get up to 700kph with 3g of acceleration over 10 seconds. I think some rollercoasters pull higher G's than that.

Rollercoasters generally warn the elderly and those with heart conditions not to ride them. Commercial aircraft pull about 1.3 G maximum.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#157

Post by kaba0 »

aerospace_guy wrote: post #143
jcims wrote: post #73

This video from magniX shows one major advantage of electric aircraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDtduvin9Mw There's almost nothing to inspect or maintain.

Huh? I see a lot of parts that can fail. What do you mean?

Compared to a jet engine that moves at high speeds under great pressure and heat?

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#158

Post by Tempest1981 »

Nova (PBS) had a show recently: https://www.pbs.org/video/great-electric-airplane-race-yija0... (requires member login)

It highlighted a few Bay Area startups. Sounded like smaller commuter planes would be first. There were also hybrid designs, which reduced fuel use significantly.

Re: Electric aircraft set to take flight by 2026 under new agreements

#160

Post by legitster »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #128

One of the things that helped Southwest dominate in the short-haul space, particularly in the Texas Triangle, was optimizing "turn-time" with a target of less than 10 minutes to both deplane and board passengers (10 minutes!)[0] I wonder how lengthy charge cycles will affect the viability of fast turn times, especially for the short-haul segments that they're targeting for these new airliners. It seems like they'll n…

I think that the turnaround time is less important for the really small jets they are considering.
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