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On Jul 24, 8:35 pm, Dan Nafe wrote:


I love it. We need to stop using ferin' oil, this is the first of many
steps in the right direction.

Except that way too much electricity is being generated
using oil or natural gas, and the losses of efficiency in first
burning the stuff, then generating electricity, transmitting it long
distances and losing more, then the heat losses in running chargers
and more heat off the batteries, I think we'd end up burning nearly
twice as much as if we just stuck a VW on it.
Coal is more available but is so dirty. Nuclear is really
avaiable but isn't cheap and scares too many folks.

Dan

The beauty of electricity is its flexibility not its efficiency - although
it can be efficient too. The source can be solar cells, wind, hydro,
nuclear or conventional coal fired generators. Whatever the source, the
pollution can be tightly controlled. No matter the source, delivery is the
same.

Nuclear power is steadilly attracting supporters from the environmentallist
ranks. It's the least poluting, least disruptive power source available.
Solar, wind and biofuels will me massively harmful to the environment if
scaled up to meet a large fraction of the demand. To meet total electric
demand, a solar plant would have to be the size of Texas as would the farm
land needed to produce an equivalent demand for biofuels. When the greenies
do their math homework, nuclear starts looking good to them.

Obviously, the problem with electric airplanes is range. It's doubtful if
electricity storage will ever reach the energy density of gasoline. One
thing that amazes me is that electrons weight almost nothing. A charged
battery, for all practical purposes, weighes the same charged or not - the
energy the battery contains weighs nothing. It seems like the boffins could
figure out a way to pressurize a container with electrons.

There are already electric self-launch gliders you can buy. The battery
pack provides more than an hour of power with the capability to climb 10,000
feet. For a glider, that's easilly a two hour flight without lift.

Bill Daniels