Hard to think of a time when the roar of pistons in cylinders might become rare, but electric propulsion has one major advantage: it can be produced by multiple means and energy sources. I think that's kind of exciting.

http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2013/September/1/Electric-instead.aspx

A coal powered airplane. Hmmmm...

With a kick ass soaring ridge in my backyard, and free excess electricity (now that I have all the equipment paid for, it's free anyway) over and beyond my average needs, I am looking for a way to use up that power, and an electric plane is one way. But, for me anyway, not yet, not with gas so cheap, maybe if it hit 10 bucks or more a gallon I'd get motivated. As of right now, I'd benefit more from an electric car as a way to use up my excess Idaho Power power.

I like the idea of a hybrid airplane though, think of an extra burst of power on takeoff, and then cruising on the gas engine, which could be smaller as it would be helped by a battery pack for the brief time period of takeoff. We may see that concept become common before a pure electric, just like in the auto world the hybrids seems to be the best of both worlds with the least drawbacks and compromises. Maybe Rotax is working on that, the Europeans are more motivated then us who are still buying cheap gas.

Av8r3400 wrote:A coal powered airplane. Hmmmm...

Or donkeys driving a wheel, whatever it takes to charge batteries

I saw last night where Porsche is coming out with a plug-in hybrid. Getting serious, I guess...

Like Tom mentioned, until gas truly get scarce and/or more expensive and regulated, electric technology will probably develop slowly.

Pretty hard to beat the amount of energy stored in a gallon of gas though. One thing I was thinking about is: Fuel quantity is one way to alter your gross weight (takeoff weight, not legal max gross) for a given flight. Having batteries instead would mean that weight is fixed, and you can neither get lighter nor heavier based on "charge."

courierguy wrote:
I like the idea of a hybrid airplane though, think of an extra burst of power on takeoff, and then cruising on the gas engine, which could be smaller as it would be helped by a battery pack for the brief time period of takeoff. We may see that concept become common before a pure electric, just like in the auto world the hybrids seems to be the best of both worlds with the least drawbacks and compromises. Maybe Rotax is working on that, the Europeans are more motivated then us who are still buying cheap gas.

I agree that we will probly see something along these lines before fully electric. Take a look at a D7E caterpillar dozer. It is a D7, that basically has a small(for a D7) 235HP engine running generators/drive motors. Works great so far. But a dozer has lots of room to fit all that in, and isn't worried about weight either. It will be very interesting to watch the progression of electric planes.

One thing I always wonder about these electric vehicles. How much better is it for the environment then gasoline when you factor in the power making source? I can see someone like like you Tom, that has solar/wind and makes clean power, that it is better for. But for the rest of us, that are plugging the chargers in to a outlet on the wall, that gets its power from hundreds of miles away, from coal powered generators. Factor in the environmental cost of coal mining, coal generation emissions, trees cleared for lines, materials and manufacturing of lines, etc etc. I often feel that lots of people think they are being so clean because they plug their car into the wall, and don't have fumes coming out of their exhaust pipes, but they fail to see or look at where the power comes from on the other side of that wall...
Sorry for the drift, just curious thinking on a Sunday afternoon.

David

David, it is no better for the environment. Anyone who makes that claim is delusional. The power, unless solar or wind or donkey, is most often a fossil fuel-burning or nuclear power plant somewhere.

But like I said, I consider electric drive the ultimate multi-fuel burner.

Hey Zane. I agree with you 100%. But all to often I hear the environmental side of electric vehicles. Hence my little rant.
I have never thought of your comment regarding changing the empty weight for mission with fuel, and with batteries the weight being the same all the time. It will be very interesting to see how light they can keep them.

David