Can Aircraft Be Far Behind?

Recently, Larry Dighera posted:

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:39:17 -0000, Dylan Smith

It would be totally and utterly impractical to charge these
batteries at this rate. I'll let you do the calculations for the
equivalent in electricity that filling a Cessna 150 with avgas in 4
minutes (the typical time to do it at a self serve pump) would be.

The issue of high charging current is true, of course.

After studying the information available on the Altair web site
http://www.altairnano.com/markets_amps.html, it has become apparent
that their battery technology trades energy density for low internal
resistance. So their product is probably not the best choice for
aircraft due to weight considerations.

According to their W/kg chart, their batteries trade a lower specific
energy (W hr/kg) for a considerably higher specific power, but I would
think that Altair's operating temperature range would be a more important
factor w/r/t aviation, as the other batteries' performance suffers badly
in low-temperature environments. I doubt that a typical Li-ion battery
would deliver the indicated specific energy in aviation temperatures, so
any weight benefit would be compromised.

Neil