Startup Wright Electric has joined forces with easyJet to try to build an electric plane for short-haul flights.
(EasyJet to fly electric jets on short-haul routs)
“A collaboration with US company Wright Electric will support the goal for short-haul flights to be operated by all-electric planes. Wright Electric has set itself the challenge of building an all-electric commercial passenger jet capable of flying passengers across easyJet’s UK and European network within a decade.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who revealed having his own design for a VTOL electric plane, says that such a system becomes possible once battery energy density reaches over 400 Wh/kg, while his Tesla vehicles are believed to be currently powered by battery cells with ~250 Wh/kg.
I'm pretty sure that science fiction great John W. Campbell was the first person to tell many Americans to start dreaming about electric aircraft, in his case, a solar-powered plane. That's from his 1930 story The Black Star Passes.
Will we see electric jets in our lifetime? They're working on it!
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SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit
'Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which we knew would be encountered the moment we had passed beyond the atmosphere.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'