Will we even see commercial electric planes in our lifetime?
From what I know, what’s stopping it from becoming commercialized(?) is limitation of current generation battery. TBH I’m not an expert on this subject.
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There is a 4 ton plane tested by CATL with a 8 ton plane in the works
https://electrek.co/2024/06/25/catl-successfully-tests-electric-plane-1800-mile-model-nears/
The density requirement for batteries for a commercialy viable airliner I believe is ~400wh/kg. There’s several technologies being commercialized now that meet that goal: Dense Lithium cells, Lithium Sulphur Iodide and BYD’s solid state battery to name a few.
There are electric planes for sale right now, even though they’re limited in take off weight and range. There are a number of companies working on more powerful models and some are nearing commercialisation. The sector is still in its infancy but as batteries get better, there is a lot of potential.
There are around 100 projects being worked on globally in 2020 so I would imagine there would be more interest in this area of development.
Given some amount of time (testing, certification, etc) - propeller-electric commercial airliners will be available with 100% certainty.
So yeah. They exist, but because batteries currently lack the power density, I don’t know if we’ll ever see them like modern air travel.
Power density is THE problem. FF sucks but it’s hard to beat it for the density.
It is more likely IMHO that you’ll see private aviation be able to use all electric for things like short distances, but use sustainable fuels for long haul flights
Development is a lot further along than coal-powered planes, lemme tell you
