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from the if-they-"could-not-fit-a-person-in-that-aircraft"-where-did-they-put-the-pilot? dept.
Submitted via IRC for FatPhil
Cessna eCaravan becomes largest electric aircraft to fly:
magniX announced that it has completed its first flight with a modified Cessna Caravan, which was powered by magniX’s electric engine, the magni500.
[...] On May 28, 2020, an electric Cessna eCaravan lifted off the ground powered by magniX’s propulsion system. The maiden flight was the fruit of hard labor to convert the aircraft from “its gas-guzzling, emission creating, old self, to an all-electric, low operating cost, clean aircraft,” according to the Australian company.
However, the CEO of the company Roei Ganzarski noted that battery technology currently is only good for “ultra-short flights of 100 miles [160 kilometers – ed. note],” and that battery technology can only go up. The dirty and smelly brother of the eCaravan, meanwhile, can travel up to 1230 miles (1982 kilometers), states Cessna’s brochure about the 9-seat Caravan.
Even so, the eCaravan did not carry passengers on its maiden flight. Goznarski told the Seattle Times that the company “could not fit a person in that aircraft,” as there “was not even an attempt to put the batteries in a convenient place.” The aircraft in its current state is just a test bed, indicated the chief executive of the company.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @05:36AM
They're not inventing anything new. They're just combining technologies that don't work together.
Batteries need to be two orders of magnitude better before they will be viable for airplanes. Combine that with the fact that you aren't really gaining anything useful by trying to make electric airplanes, and there is just really no reason for them.
"Forever" is a long time, but I will predict that airplanes (actual useful ones, not useless demos or tiny two seat trainers) will be petroleum powered for at least 50 years, probably longer.