El lunes, 5 de agosto de 2019, 19:10:09 (UTC-3), Steve Koerner escribió:
I'm sure there's a lot more pros and cons...

Another consideration would be fueling and defueling a jet. That's surely a bigger hassle than recharging an FES.

Also, one would need to examine cost and frequency of inspection, maintenance and overhaul requirements. I'm pretty sure the FES will win in that department as well even though the FES battery will be expensive to replace when that becomes necessary.

With an electric system, one would expect to experience gradual battery degradation. That's certainly a disadvantage compared to the jet which would be expected to sustain its initial performance over the years.

All-in-all, boom electric with self launch potency seems like the best idea to me. I hope that becomes a widely available option.

Batteries are expensive? Yes.
But you have to think about the retrieves cost and "time landed out" cost. Also the possibility to train a lot.
If you can self launch also, you will amortize the cost of the pack and maybe of the whole system.
Taking good care of the battery pack would extend the calendar life more than 10 years to the 80% of capacity.

Safety is a concern, of course. You will see a lot of news about electric vehicles catching fire, normal vehicles also catches fire but there no interest in that kind of news. In the past 100 years we get used to ride with a backpack full of explosive liquid and the inherent danger. Luckily we will do the same with batteries.