EV Aircraft!

[Frank Lee]

I love this, especially the silence! No- especially how quick and cheap the maintenance will become!

Moar battery capacity and they'd really have something!

https://newatlas.com/electric-aircra...9e053-90350850

[Xist]

How far can petroleum-powered two-seaters usually go?

[samwichse]

Originally Posted by Xist

How far can petroleum-powered two-seaters usually go?

A Cessna 172 with a 43 gallon tank can go ~650 miles cruising at ~45% throttle (maybe 90-95 mph?).

That's a four seater, but a two seater should be able to do a bit better.

Sam

[jamesqf]

Piper Cherokee 180 - another 4 place, but with just me aboard - can do about 850 miles at about 75% throttle - that's around 130 mph. But you can find other planes - the Rutan LongEZ, for instance, that are much better on fuel.

[Xist]

Wikipedia says this is the electric version of their Trainer, which costs $103,000 (a fraction as much as that Cessna) and has a range of 373 miles, and they started selling the Electro for 69,000€, which is currently around $82,000.

What?

I am trying to establish the ROI.

Also, people comment that most of the noise comes from the propeller.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I'd be concerned about the reliability of the batteries in an all-electric aircraft. Not just it would be exposed to a wide range of variation in pressure and temperature, it's also worth to remind the air-conditioning and pressurization of an aircraft is quite energy-intensive.

[elhigh]

^^
Lots of small planes don't have any AC whatsoever, or cabin pressurization. You DID notice the absence of seals around those super-skinny doors, right? There's nothing there to hold any air in, and insufficient structure to hold any pressure even if there were seals. This thing's intended as an inexpensive-to-operate trainer, so its ceiling will probably be about 10,000 feet/3000 meters.

Get a little distance away from the ground and it cools off anyway. AC is easy enough to leave off.

Guessing at a cruising speed around 90mph (saw 140-157 kmh airspeeds during the vid) would give the plane a 90 mile range with another 45 in reserve. Not much but not nothing, either.

I would be very curious to know how much range solar cells could add.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It may serve reasonably for a small training aircraft, but I was also considering commercial aircraft.

[niky]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

Solar panels on wings for "in-flight" recharging?!?!

A possibility. Rutan's Voyager had them. But with this plane's wingspan, it would only be good for just a bit extra range, rather than on-demand power.

[teoman]

An electric paramotor is another alternative if you really want to fly.