From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
I had a model plane that was powered by rubber bands when I was a boy, but you would not fly across the Atlantic on one!
When a one-person plane powered purely by electricity took to the skies above the village of Little Snoring, it was a remarkable achievement in British engineering.
The maiden voyage of the first all-electric light aircraft designed and built entirely in the UK could herald the beginning of a new, homegrown, zero-emissions aerospace manufacturing industry.
But its victory lap didn’t last long. The plane was up for just 33 minutes above the airfield in Norfolk, before it came back down for a recharge.
The all-electric microlight aeroplane could last up to 90 minutes on full charge “on paper”, according to Guy Gratton, an associate professor of aviation at Cranfield University, who piloted the Sherwood eKub.
The plane was manufactured by The Light Aircraft Company (TLAC), which sells small planes to hobbyists around the world, and built by a British-based consortium led by Mr Gratton.
It is a major achievement in the race to establish emission-free air travel which the Government has backed with its Jet Zero Council. But it is unlikely to be the answer to eliminate the guilt from your overseas holidays any time soon.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/04/electric-planes-have-finally-taken-wont-get-far/
Why is soppy Emma Gatten writing this, instead of the Telegraph’s aviation editor, who might know what he is talking about? (And, by the way, I don’t have any guilt about flying!)
As any aviation expert would have told her, battery powered flight has a fundamental obstacle, which it cannot overcome except for this sort of microlight, short range flight – the ratio of weight to energy density.
Put simply, to install enough battery capacity for a longer flight would add too much weight to the aircraft for it to be in any way useful.
This microlight might find a niche amongst hobbyists. But as the Managing Director of TLAC admits:
“For the hobbyist, the leisure aviator, there is undoubtedly a market for it. But I’m certainly not basing my entire company’s future business on the project.”
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Ideas of large aircraft using batteries are absolute nonsense. With 56 years of aviation behind me and a long airline career, I can say those pushing this stuff have no idea of the power equirements that are required from the engines on airline aircraft. Very considerable amounts of hydraulic power are required to get the landing gear up quickly, especially with engine failures and for terrain clearance.
Pressurization and air conditioning need continuous input and on entering cloud below 10C engine anti icing must be used. Imagine the battery power required to provide instantaneous heat into the engine nacelles and guide vanes and in deteriating conditions to protect the wing and tail plane leading edges as well.It couldn’t be done.
It doesn’t bear thinking about to be in thunderstorm conditions or near them to be relying on battery power and be hit by lightning. What a delusional world these people inhabit.
Well said. I once calculated the kWh needed to equal a 777’s engine power. It’s awesome, and even if the whole airplane was full of the best batteries, no room for anything else, it wouldn’t be anywhere near equal.
Green wishful thinking and reality are two trains on the same track heading toward each other at high speed. The collision is going to be spectacular. Places like Germany are beginning to see it coming, yet the physics-challenged politicians are still hoping for miracles.
OTOH, there’s this: https://youtu.be/LV9qrUSWhoA
So awesomely cool! But at $92,000 a copy, a bit out of my reach.
A most important factor in commercial transportation is “payload”, which is of course the weight of passengers and/or cargo that can be transported profitably.
A battery pack with long range capacity reduces the payload.
So 30 minutes reserve required for a VFR flight. So plan on 3 minute flights then! Better get good at off field landings, and will the RAA (AAA or AA) come and charge you back up so you can get to the next aiport?
United Airlines says they’re gonna have this by 2030.