Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
So what is the cost per seat mile of this electric 90 seat airliner and how does it compare to an equivalent Turbo Prop airliner ?
That will depend almost entirely on fuel cost assumptions:
- Battery electric: the battery will probably be semi-consumable, with a limited number of cycles, so it's "fuel" of a sort. How many cycles/years?
- Fuel-cell electric: cost of hydrogen fuel - I don't think anyone has now a clear view of the likely costs of bulk supplies of green LH2 in the 2030s & 2040s
- Hydrogen-fuelled turboprop: cost of hydrogen fuel (see above)
- SAF conventional turboprop: will the SAF be 1.5x, 2x, or 3x the 2024 cost of fossil fuel?
- Fossil-fuelled turboprop: cost of fossil fuel. I expect this will probably be still available until 2050-ish, but I expect carbon taxes to make this more and more expensive, then eye-wateringly more expensive, at least in "Western" nations.
Electric propulsion aircraft should be a bit cheaper in maintenance costs than turboprop aircraft, because there a so many fewer components - particularly rotating components - in their engines, but I doubt this will be significant in the whole picture.