posted by
martyb
on Friday March 24 2017, @03:57AM
from the solar-cells+dirigible+batteries+propellers dept.
from the solar-cells+dirigible+batteries+propellers dept.
A new start-up says it intends to offer an electric-powered commercial flight from London to Paris in 10 years.
Its plane, yet to go into development, would carry 150 people on journeys of less than 300 miles.
Wright Electric said by removing the need for jet fuel, the price of travel could drop dramatically.
British low-cost airline Easyjet has expressed its interest in the technology.
"Easyjet has had discussions with Wright Electric and is actively providing an airline operator's perspective on the development of this exciting technology," the airline told the BBC.
Vaporware, but the expression of intent is interesting.
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London-Paris Electric Flight 'in Decade'
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(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday March 24 2017, @04:29AM (12 children)
Well I will have electric flights going to the moon in 10 years.
The thing that is the same is that they are equally likely.
Seriously, take a look at the website for Wright Electric [weflywright.com]. Completely devoid of content. I have seen Kickstarter scams that have looked more viable.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 24 2017, @04:40AM (1 child)
They're emerging from stealth mode!
Seriously though, companies that get venture capital funding but aren't widely known tend to have very sparse info on their websites.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday March 24 2017, @11:51AM
(Score: 1) by DoctorVoodoo on Friday March 24 2017, @04:47AM (3 children)
I reckon it would take a strong swimmer/walker 5-6 days. But train is quicker.
I could live with 10 days to moon. But I'd be wanting Uranus, if not interstellar, for 10 year journey.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Friday March 24 2017, @05:13AM (1 child)
I wouldn't want a 10 year journey anywhere - unless I get to live at least 1 million years. There is [realistically] nothing on the other end that is worth 10 years of life to me.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday March 24 2017, @07:12AM
One million? I'd take a one-year journey already if in return I'd get one hundred extra years of life. That would most probably more than double my total lifetime; one year of travel wouldn't be too much of a price for that, don't you think?
Indeed, I'm not sure that living a million years would be desirable. Probably you'd end up spending most of your life in isolation, as the rest of humanity is either already extinct, or evolved to a higher form that won't be interested in sharing their time with such a primitive life form as you are in their eyes.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @05:44PM
Sorry, Dr. Voodoo, but I don't go in for these backdoor shenanigans. Sure, I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious, but the answer is no!
(Score: 1) by tftp on Friday March 24 2017, @05:21AM (5 children)
The thing that is the same is that they are equally likely.
Don't be such a naysayer. Helium balloons are well known. Add a modern LED flashlight, and here you are - electrically flying! Can even get from London to Paris, if you are lucky and don't die for one of many possible reasons (including an attack of violent avians, if you believe Jules Verne.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Friday March 24 2017, @08:25AM (4 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 24 2017, @09:18AM (3 children)
Not to mention that, by the time electric flight becomes reality, the London to Edinburgh travel will be international - London, the capital of Small Britain and Edinburgh an European capital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Friday March 24 2017, @10:21AM (2 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 24 2017, @11:57AM
(Score: 2) by gidds on Sunday March 26 2017, @08:23PM
Hmmm, not heard that.
I suspect that an independent London might suddenly become rather less wealthy and important without the vast armies of people who commute in to work there…
[sig redacted]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @04:40AM (1 child)
Translation [xkcd.com]: We haven't finished inventing it yet, but when we do, it'll be awesome.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday March 24 2017, @08:09AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday March 24 2017, @02:47PM
Wright Electric said by removing the need for jet fuel, the price of travel could drop dramatically.
Well, the method of "removing" the need for "jet fuel" is to replace that Jet fuel with "something else", in this case perhaps "batteries".
Batteries seem to, optimistically, have about .5 MJ/kg [allaboutbatteries.com] (MegaJoules per kilogram) to offer. Wikipedia, admittedly no fuel authority, cites about 43 MJ/kg [wikipedia.org] for jet fuel.
This, to me, looks like Jet Fuel gives your aircraft about 86 times as much go-go for each kilogram of added weight. Thus removing jet fuel to use batteries instead would cause more of a "sharp rise" than a "drop" in costs.
Maybe they are putting the power source on the ground in the middle, and using a really long, lightweight superconducting wire to get the electricity to the aircraft? Or perhaps super-efficient solar (on good days/above the clouds), or harvesting cosmic rays/gravity waves/etc in a really good generator?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 24 2017, @05:31PM (2 children)
Easyjet turns their planes around in 20 minutes. That's how they make money off cheap flights.
The electric flight will be slower. Sure, you save fuel, but you need to pay the people longer, cutting into the gains significantly. Therefore, you don't want to make the stops longer.
Short of having a 300kV line on the tarmac, how on earth are they going to recharge a plane in 20 minutes?
(Score: 1) by jrmcferren on Friday March 24 2017, @05:45PM (1 child)
The goal wouldn't be to recharge in 20 minutes, especially not at first. They can do a few things. They can offer electric as a budget option flying infrequently, or they could design the plane to have the battery modules easily swapped. If the latter is the case, all Easyjet would need to do is have enough battery modules (plus some spares of course) to last a day of flight operations. The batteries can then be recharged during off peak hours saving Easyjet even more money.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday March 24 2017, @06:01PM
Reliably swapping giant batteries?
Buying many giant batteries?
Yup, that's a total non-starter as a commercial thing.
And it's green tech, so it's a total non-starter a a USG thing.
Go ask the Chinese government if they want a way-ahead-of-its-time prestige proto...