PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - What will recreational flying be like in a few decades?
Old 23rd Nov 2015, 14:28
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foxmoth
 
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Unless you are very slow at the loo, it will be a longer wait than that.

Today, if I could monopolizs 4 charging bays it would take a little less than 2 hours for my car to recharge the electricity need to produce the thrust of 384 l of avgas (a full load including tips for the Bonanza). Not as quick as a loo break, but also, not impractically slow (a 2 hr charging break every 1000 nms). That is with currently widely deployed charging and battery technology.

The current problem, is that a plane with 4 x the battery weight as my car currently has would never get off the ground.

The only bit that is a technology stretch is the battery capacity
As you say ATM you could charge your battery in about 2 hours, we are talking 20-30 years time, already there are phone batteries on the way that will fully charge in about 30 seconds
Future batteries, coming soon: charge in seconds, last months and power over the air - Pocket-lint
Look into the future and this could easily be the case with a more powerful battery that could power an aircraft, maybe not charging in 30 seconds, but certainly in the 15 minutes or so it takes for a loo and coffee break!

Batteries are getting lighter, more powerful and developing VERY fast
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