First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
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Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#2The title is a little misleading:
This is not a commercial flight, currently the plane in question is licensed by the FAA as "experimental" specifically excluding commercial flights.
Still cool! I think electric might have a great future in short-hop flights.
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#3Off topic and stupid, but could an electric plane be outfitted with lightning rods and/or lightning rockets to attract lightning strikes in order to charge the batteries?
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#4Off topic and stupid, but could an electric plane be outfitted with lightning rods and/or lightning rockets to attract lightning strikes in order to charge the batteries?
Utilizing the energy in lightning is hard, the voltage involved are hard to contain without damaging equipment and you can't charge batteries directly from the strike so it must be buffered somewhere.
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#5Off topic and stupid, but could an electric plane be outfitted with lightning rods and/or lightning rockets to attract lightning strikes in order to charge the batteries?
They have static discharge wicks to let the lightning pass through. Newer carbon aircraft integrate copper mesh to conduct the current through the hull. The aircraft must be flyable following a strike, the ones I worked on were basically only able to protect the crew and land safely in that event. After that, it was expected the aircraft would be fully torn down, inspected, and rebuilt.
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#6I suspect this would be much, much quieter than a regular gasoline engine correct? These smaller planes are loud.
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#7Off topic and stupid, but could an electric plane be outfitted with lightning rods and/or lightning rockets to attract lightning strikes in order to charge the batteries?
Even if you could, how could that even be useful?
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#8Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#9Still seems a bit far from replacing jet engines? This article was going on about fuel emissions in the entire aviation industry, this is just an electric propeller. Anyone know how far we are from electric jets? Is such a thing even possible?
Re: First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
#10I suspect this would be much, much quieter than a regular gasoline engine correct? These smaller planes are loud.
Much of the noise from small planes is from the propeller(s), so it might not help much.