Harry Veeder wrote:
Jed Rothwell wrote:I think electric cars would be easier to implement than people realize, and most of the concerns about limited operating range are either unimportant, or they could easily be fixed. If the world had run short of oil back in 1960, you can be sure we would have implemented electric cars with battery exchanges by 1975, and everyone would take it for granted. - Jed Anyone consider electric planes? Lifters?Harry
We are still a long way away from electric air craft with two exceptions. Solar electric drones or airships and hybrid aircraft. If EESTOR or one of the others can deliver a bettery then it is possible to use it in either. Particularly if some smart chap with money [so I don't qualify] can figure out how to craft a bettery that is also a high strength 'structural girder'. Hint hint. Aircraft use most of their power taking off and landing. At cruising their powerplants are running at below optimal power. Energy banks would help by allowing the main engines to be built for the cruising load. This also allows fuel cell planes. Air craft would be more fuel efficient if airports included taxi way power boosters: that's a 'power truck' hooked up to the aircraft with a break a way link that powers the plane right up to the point where the pilot hits the throttle. Such vehicles are notoriously slow and fiddly. Manual connections and a hand towed trolley is still standard. Solar on the top of the fuselage and wings would also help power the air-conditioning while the plane is waiting on the ground in the cue for the runway. We will probably see both faster power trucks and solar soon. They are the two available innovations to cut aircraft fuel costs.
