• Question: do you think commercial airplanes will ever run on electricity

    Asked by grisha to Sheila, Piyush, Natalia, Gary, Dimitar on 13 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Gary Munnelly

      Gary Munnelly answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      I hope so!

      The challenge here is to develop an electrical engine that:
      1. generates enough power to lift an airplane of the ground
      2. stores enough energy to travel long distances
      3. is efficient enough that the energy cost of charging the battery does not outweigh the energy benefits of using it
      4. Doesn’t take too long to charge (you can’t afford to have a plane waiting 3 days to charge up).

      I’m an optimist when it comes to things such as this. I believe that people can solve almost anything once they understand where the problem comes from. So I do believe that engineers will develop a way of building a commercial airplane that runs on electricity, provided they are given adequate time and funding to look for solutions. After that, it’s all about whether or not airline companies would be willing to switch to electric airplanes and whether or not you would be willing to wait for your plane to charge on the runway đŸ™‚

    • Photo: Dimitar Shterionov

      Dimitar Shterionov answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Yes, I think they will do. So far there has been quite some progress in electrical cars, electrical bikes, electrical scooters. That makes me believe that sooner or later electrical planes will fly people around continents.
      I have thought many times that airplanes should be supplied with solar panels to generate auxiliary power. One of the main challenges, however is the weight of batteries with enough capacity to sustain a full flight. Next, airplanes need a lot of torque for take off, which neither commercial car fuel, nor electrical motors can provide at the moment. But I believe that engineers will make it work.

      One more thing is the monopoly that fuel and oil companies have on all kinds of transportation. I hope this changes sooner.

      I think in 15-20 years there will be airplanes flying on electricity.

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