Right now, Electric Cars are the cool new thing that has the tech and automotive sectors buzzing. But what’s the natural next step after EVs?
Electric Planes of course!
Right now, scientists are working on batteries that will give us the ability to fly planes that don’t run off any fossil fuels and don’t pollute.
The main issue that has been holding back an electric plane in the past are the fact that it is hard to build a battery with enough capacity to fly an aircraft, that is also light enough to fly! It’s a real chicken and egg type situation.
Another problem is price, we have amazing technology to power electric vehicles, but most of the EV’s on the market are not cheap at all.
This being said, aircrafts and cars are entirely different vehicles. With car batteries, you need to factor in cost and how it fits in with the car’s mechanics, but a plane’s critical issue is weight and the insane amount of energy it requires.
The positive thing is that energy dense, lightweight batteries are becoming more and more common as lithium technology progresses.
While we may be a fair way off electric commercial jets, there is another exiting electric flight innovation happening right beneath our noses, aerial taxis.
That’s right, Uber is currently working with NASA to create the world’s first aerial taxi service, that can fly passengers from Point A to Point B. while the details are still being kept under wraps, it is believed the vehicles will be electric. It will be interesting to see how Uber goes about building vehicle batteries that are energy dense and light enough to carry multiple passengers through their air. Especially since they want to have this project in the air by 2023.
A more realistic solution to the plane issue is to not have it 100 per cent dependant on a battery, by rather make it a hybrid craft. Using fuel to boost the battery can still dramatically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining the aircraft’s efficiency.
Batteries are only getting better with time, so who knows what exciting new technological advances we’ll see in aviation? Maybe we’ll have airline food that actually tastes good?
