How high can you fly?

Jim Logajan wrote:
wrote:
Electric airplanes are not and will not be superior to ICE airplanes
at any altitude any time in the foreseeable future.

While I think Mark is starry eyed (at best,) you are technically mistaken
in the above assertion because in fact electric airplanes (actually solar-
electric airplanes) hold some world records:

When the solar-electric "Pathfinder" reached 80,000 ft in 1999 it set the
altitude record for highest altitude flown by prop-driven aircraft.

When the solar-electric "Helios" reached 96,863 ft in 2001 it set the
altitude record for highest altitude flown by non-rocket powered aircraft.

When the solar-electric "Zepher" stayed aloft for for over 2 weeks in 2010,
it set the endurance record for unmanned aircraft.

The common element of these is "solar-electric". None of them would have
been possible with batteries. They could not have gotten off the ground had
they used batteries. None of them would have been plausibly accomplished
with internal (or external) combustion engines. The latter gasp for breath
at high altitudes.

So electric (specifically solar-electric) is indeed superior for certain
applications. Just not general aviation.

They hold records for R/C airplanes.

None of them had a human, or anything alive, on board.

One off research prototypes can be interesting, but that's about it.



--
Jim Pennino

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