PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - eviation alice test flight
View Single Post
Old 10th Jul 2019, 18:29
  #6 (permalink)  
Machdiamond
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 111
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
This article has some data https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...alice-fly-year

Let's see, 14000 lb maximum takeoff weight minus 8200 lb of batteries minus 2000 lb of useful load (9 passengers and bags plus one pilot at 200 lb each) that leaves 3800 lb for the structure, systems, cabin interior, landing gear, propulsion system. That's an empty weight of 27% takeoff weight while the norm for this size aircraft is consistently around 62% with very few outliers, even with advanced composites structure.

On the battery side, they apparently mistook energy density at the pack level with the cell level. Industry best numbers currently stand around 170 Wh/kg and 260 Wh/kg respectively, so the claimed 960 kWh will require nearly 12000 lb of batteries instead of 8200 lb (which turns out to match the 260 Wh/kg so it really does look like they made that basic mistake).

If they ever get this thing to fly, at best it will have 5000 lb of batteries with a capacity of 380 kWh, optimistically giving a no-reserves range of about 70 nm according to quick napkin calculations.

It's also going to be a noisy aircraft like the Avanti, always a given with pusher propellers.
Machdiamond is offline