PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - I can't wait for electric/hybrid aircraft.
Old 26th Sep 2011, 17:28
  #117 (permalink)  
Zulu Alpha
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: East Anglia
Posts: 832
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Recently I went to a presentation by a specialist in the field and while ebullient he accepted that there are unresolved long term issues like the loss of petrol tax revenue, so maybe there will be an increase in road taxes, perhaps by having a mileage based tax. Otherwise, domestic electricity is far too cheap relative to petrol.
I wish electric aircraft were feasible, but if the electricity is only cheap because there is no tax then it is somewhat pointless exercise.
I wonder what would happen if we started using central heating fuel at 53p/litre in modified diesel engines.
With the extra economy of diesel this would seem to be a much more available technology than batteries today and probably cheaper than the cost of electricity plus batteries.

How long do you think we could get away with it? (assuming the LAA/CAA approvals were available).
Zulu Alpha is offline