Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
This is a graphic illustraton of how far we are from electric aircraft being a practical reality.
5000lb of batteries give just 70 miles no reserves.
How far would this thing go with 5000lb of Jet A1?
The gap in energy density is still around 40:1 in favour of hydrocarbon fuel.
Over 70 years we have pushed the jet engine to perhaps a three-four fold improvement in fuel efficiency - 40 fold is simply an unachieveable increment.
I for one doubt that batteries are capable of beig pushed anywhere near that far - electric aircraft will probably need something else - and that something hasn't been invented yet.
Well it has really - Solar Impulse for instance had in flight charging - obviously a marginal aircraft but an impressive demo.
As for how far this ship would go with 5,000 kgs Avtur - not very far unless they change the engine. ^_^