הכול
← Back to Squawk list
"Tesla in the skies": Airbus to build E-Fan electric plane, due for take-off in 2017
Airbus hopes to do for aviation what Tesla has done for motoring as the aircraft manufacturer commits to building its all-electric E-Fan plane. (www.ausbt.com.au) עוד...
Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I don't understand the benefit of this. The energy per pound of jet fuel is far, far higher than any type of battery so you get a weight penalty. Then you put an engine, generator and some fuel on board to charge the batteries and extend the range. It's all extra weight with no advantage over a regular turbine.
Hybrid cars harvest braking energy to improve their fuel efficiency, but I don't see this feature in the plane.
Hybrid cars harvest braking energy to improve their fuel efficiency, but I don't see this feature in the plane.
If Airbus (or anyone else) wants to spend their money on 'thinking outside of the box (or gas tank in this case)', let them run with it. What may be most interesting are the spin-off ideas that come up that nobody thought of until looking into this. Not every expenditure should be focused on the bottom line of the CEO's quarterly bonus. Just saying.
The feel good green electric power is not green in any way as once all of it is put into the basket at the best its break even. Most of the time its dirty and worse than standard fuel. Same with bio fuels the cost and energy needed to make it either drives up foods produced from the same crop or uses as much energy to make as it produces. Waste of time as most of the money is from tax incentives which means the public pays for there fun.
And the move to Ethanol pushed corn prices to the point some people could no longer afford to make tortillas. "Clean" and "Green" are marketing terms that help fill someones' pocket.
As far as how green the aircraft can be, Europe is way ahead of the US in converting to renewable and alternative energy sources. Germany has been able to produce more than 100% of peak residential electricity needs using solar, and produces more solar energy than the entire US (despite the introduction of a number of massive solar farms in the Western US).
Anyone who thinks that electric propulsion for aircraft will never work only needs to look at what happened with model aircraft. The early electric motors and batteries were far from practical, but today they dominate due to their convenience, low maintenance, quietness, and low operating cost. Those same things are important in aviation and will drive decision-making.