[PhantomPholly]

Good article out of Oshkosh air show.

[McRat]

Wow. The world will be electric powered in our lifetime. Buy utility stocks now.

[PhantomPholly]

Well I think so but not everyone agrees. There are still several orders of magnitude to go before batteries surpass gas for energy density.

Seems like the fellow the article talks about ought to be one of the people mentioned on this site?

[McRat]

Well, IBM demonstrated a Lithium-Air battery that has the power density of gas. 10x that of LiPo? Something like that.

I'm sure if there's money to be made, IBM will get it to market ASAP.

[david85]

Its not even that fast....which means there are plenty more records to come after this. Propeller driven flight is generally practical up to about 500 MPH. After that, it tends to get a bit noisy

Wish I had a quarter million to blow on a plane.

[McRat]

Originally Posted by david85

Its not even that fast....which means there are plenty more records to come after this. Propeller driven flight is generally practical up to about 500 MPH. After that, it tends to get a bit noisy

Wish I had a quarter million to blow on a plane.

I've only flown Cessna 172's and 150's. They only go about 110mph. 200 is a HUGE jump from there. Most private planes don't go 200.

500mph in a Mustang takes about 3000HP, IIRC.

[david85]

Originally Posted by McRat

I've only flown Cessna 172's and 150's. They only go about 110mph. 200 is a HUGE jump from there. Most private planes don't go 200.

500mph in a Mustang takes about 3000HP, IIRC.

Well sure, but the cessna 170 or 150 series isn't what I would describe as a performance plane and wasn't supposed to be.

Lancair has been building 300 MPH + aircraft for over 20 years.

Even the Rutan EZ in the article was rated for up to 185 MPH stock (assuming I'm correct about the exact model he used)

[njloof]

Realistically, electric planes are likely to be used for moderate performance and short flights until battery weight can be reduced. Great for trainers like a Cessna.

[PhantomPholly]

Electric has the advantages that it does not lose power with altitude and requires little or no special venting for cooling (big drag). Get us the batteries and everyone will switch - maybe not as fast as the automobile market, but then again airplanes average a 60 year lifetime compared to a 20 year lifetime for autos.

[McRat]

I predict ultralights will switch to electric fairly quickly, if they haven't already.

You could run 2 or 3 motors for redundancy, hand-lay 2HP worth of solar chips on the top of the wing, and when you park it, it could charge it's batteries or help power your home when you are not using it.