LeSving wrote:
It’s like saying you don’t need to taste beer and wine to understand that alcohol is not necessarily good for yo. Then you completely miss the point that beer and wine are good for other things. Happiness for instance dinner, party.
That’s a terrible analogy. You indeed don’t need to taste them to know that it’s bad for your health.
Tell me, what is the electric aircraft’s redeeming features, its equivalent of the happiness, dinner, & party? I’m pretty sure I’m not missing anything in not having a slow-speed tour of the local sights in something with almost no payload and almost no range. I can do that very well in the Vagabond (with slightly better payload and much better range) and if I want silence I’ll go gliding.
Graham wrote:
I can do that very well in the Vagabond (with slightly better payload and much better range)
That reminds me of a joke my old professor used to tell. One guy was telling stories of how nice the girls in Rio were. Another guy objected and said that there is nothing the girls in Rio have that the girls in Norway don’t have. The first guy thought for a while, and then answered: Well, that may be true, but what the girls in Rio have, they have it all in Rio 
Not there yet, but pointing in the right direction. Yes, I know, not for next year..
I’ll believe that Wright press release when I see it. To me it reads “We are developing 1kWh per kg batteries because we have some handwavium”. It’s very easy to promise that energy density, rather trickier to actually deliver, given the known limitations of known battery chemistries.
The electric plane charging point at Shoreham is creating some giggles, especially as no electric plane has enough range to get to Shoreham from another airport which also has a charging point. Well, there may be one: Sandown. But how do you get to Sandown?
The idea is basically completely useless. I just hope the airport didn’t get stung with some sort of participation payment.
But how do you get to Sandown?
From Shoreham of course.
You just need someone to start building electric planes at one or the other, and everything will be fine.
I just read an article about how battery development company Cuberg, a subsidiary of battery giant Northvolt, has developed a battery with about 40% better energy/weight ratio than the best batteries in current production. The battery is, IIUC, based on the same chemistry as traditional Lithium-based batteries, but has a different anode design (metallic lithium rather than graphite) which leads to major weight savings. The battery is apparently not vaporware either but it is actually working although deliveries to the market are not expected for another 3 or 4 years.
Mentour Pilot did a take on electric Pipistrel:
I would be scared to enter the aircraft that has 45 min plus reserve
Well, it seems best suited for ‘have 60min free time (all-inclusive, from arriving to the airport to leaving it) , would love to have a quick bimble in the sky’.
Very simple pre-flight, basic stick & rudder flying for joy, not for going places…
