In the context of the Harbor Air efforts, most their flights are only 30 minutes,
so they don't need huge batteries. The AOPA article (or maybe it was an EAA
article) had details that indicated the one hour flight time target was feasible
and economic. They are doing this to improve their business operation, and not
because it was forced on them.

In the soaring context, electric self-launchers offer good or better launching
power, less maintenance, and easier operation for similar purchase cost. They
don't have the self-retrieve range of the gas powered gliders, but my 25 years of
self-launching experience showed I rarely use much of that available range.


wrote on 1/3/2020 8:17 PM:
Let's talk about how much fuel it takes to get an airliner from Point A to
Point B. You want to climb above the weather (30,000 ft. or more), you want to
haul enough passengers and their stuff to pay the cost of doing business, the
airplane, the crew, the maintenance, the insurance, and all the rest of what
makes a business run and an airplane fly.

What are you going to use to make this happen? Jet-A1 (or JP-4 or Kerosene, or
diesel, or whatever other petrochemical compound) with a sufficient energy
density to lift its own weight plus the mass of the airplane and payload and
keep it aloft until Point B is reached (with a significant fuel reserve because
**** happens).

You want electric airplanes that will do the same thing? Not likely. The energy
density of the most powerful battery bank is still nowhere near sufficient
enough to allow an airplane (even Light Sport Aircraft) to take off, climb to
altitude, cruise for long distance and carry anything but batteries..

Yes, battery technology is improving, and quickly. But the actual laws of
physics take over and determine the maximum output and duration of every
chemical battery.

"$200,000 worth of Tesla batteries, which collectively weigh over 20,000
pounds, are needed to store the energy equivalent of one barrel of oil." (from
the Manhattan Institute study on the economic cost of "Green Energy."

https://www.manhattan-institute.org/...ear-impossible

As soaring pilots, we recognize, appreciate, analyze and utilize "free"
atmospheric energy. But we also recognize the limitations of our technology
when the energy suddenly (or gradually) diminishes or disappears. Trying to
legislate and force an unreliable and wildly expensive form of unreliable
energy on an energy dependent populace for political gain will doom a large
portion of the world to starve to death in the dark.



--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1