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Electric aircraft - analysis from Paul Bertorelli

Interesting video from Avweb. Nothing overly surprising but best described as “realistic”.



United Kingdom

I know almost nobody is going to watch a 30 min video, especially a mostly “talking” one, but I just have, and this confirms my view which is that most of these projects are simply BS, and mostly for obvious reasons.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

My impression was that the journalist hasn’t seen or knew much about any of the projects other than Joby. Though he did mention briefly that he’d been in a Pipistrelle.

But he really didn’t seem to know much about anything beyond Joby. That of course could be because there isn’t much to know and the rest are vapour ware.

EIWT Weston, Ireland

Well, Pipistrel are selling electric aircraft like there is no tomorrow. Haven’t watched the video (yet anyway), but the power density sets its limitations.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

They do mention Pipistrel are selling well. It is most of the others which don’t stand up to analysis.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Electric aircraft will be great for flight training and some club flying where you only need 1-1,5 hrs of flight time.

I hope they will succeed commercially as well but I won’t hold my breath.

ESSZ, Sweden

Quite interesting interview, and a worrying aspect of the future… for us pilots (pilot: /ˈpʌɪlət/, noun, 1. a person who operates the flying controls of an aircraft.)

The video is not about e-aircraft such as a Pipistrel (what a ridiculous name…), but more about the future and viability of eVTOLs. And those could well spell the end of light GA as we know it. And pilots

ain't the Destination, but the Journey
LSZF, Switzerland

DeeCee57 wrote:

And those could well spell the end of light GA as we know it.

I stopped listen to apocalyptic arguments. There will be AVGAS. There will be GA. Maybe even more of it, who knows. But there are so many brilliant people loving to aviate, that there’s no way anyone can make me believe that GA will cease in the next 30 years.

Germany

UdoR wrote:

I stopped listen to apocalyptic arguments. There will be AVGAS. There will be GA. Maybe even more of it, who knows. But there are so many brilliant people loving to aviate, that there’s no way anyone can make me believe that GA will cease in the next 30 years.

I think GA in many ways still live in the 1950s and 60s when it was believed that private aircraft some day (soon) would replace cars. That is obviously not going to happen anytime soon, but small electric (semi) autonomous “flying cars” (drone-like vehicles) may in fact be something. Private GA as such with a pilot etc. will move more and more towards recreational/hobby and sport exclusively. They will be as relevant as transportation vehicles as MC, boats, canoes They certainly can be used for transportation, but will not be the first or second or third choice for pure transportation purposes for 99.99% of the population.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

LeSving wrote:

They certainly can be used for transportation, but will not be the first or second or third choice for pure transportation purposes for 99.99% of the population.

Perhaps outside the US, but the use of private aircraft for transportation in the US is so widespread that it will be a very long time before it disappears. Not for technical reasons but for purely freedom of flight reasons, both personal and business.

LSZK, Switzerland
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