{"id":44483,"date":"2019-03-14T10:02:11","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T15:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44483"},"modified":"2019-03-14T10:02:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T15:02:14","slug":"why-arent-there-battery-powered-airplanes-or-flying-cars%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44483","title":{"rendered":"Why aren\u2019t there battery powered airplanes or flying cars?\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"http:\/\/energyskeptic.com\/2019\/why-arent-there-battery-powered-airplanes\/\">Why aren\u2019t there battery powered airplanes or flying cars?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/energyskeptic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/chitty-chitty-bang-bang-flying-car.jpg?resize=551%2C358\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10575\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Preface.<\/strong>&nbsp; Batteries are too heavy for airplanes to get off the ground. These two articles explain that in further detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Viswanathan, V., et al. 2018. Why Aren\u2019t There Electric Airplanes Yet? It Comes Down to Batteries. Batteries need to get lighter and more efficient before we use them to power energy-guzzling airplanes. Smithsonian.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c\u2026for a given weight, jet fuel contains about 14 times more usable energy than a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery\u2026.the best batteries store about 40 times less energy per unit of weight than jet fuel.&nbsp; That makes batteries relatively heavy for aviation. Airline companies are already worried about weight \u2013 imposing fees on luggage in part to limit how much planes have to carry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>So what about a flying car (e-VTOL)?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We looked at how much energy a small battery-powered aircraft of 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms, including a passenger) capable of vertical takeoff and landing would need.&nbsp; While actually flying, the air vehicle would need 400 to 500 watt-hours per mile, about what an electric pickup truck would need, which is twice as much energy used as an electric car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But taking off and landing require a lot more power, at least 8,000 to 10,000 watt-hours per trip, or half the energy in a compact electric car such as the Nissan Leaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So for an entire flight of 20 miles you\u2019d need 800 to 900 watt-hours per mile&nbsp; \u2014 half as much energy as a fully loaded semi-truck.&nbsp; Using that much energy means these aren\u2019t likely to take off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAircraft designers also need to closely examine the power \u2013 or how quickly the stored energy is available. This is important because ramping up to take off in a jet or pushing down against gravity in a helicopter takes much more power than turning the wheels of a car or truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why aren\u2019t there battery powered airplanes or flying cars? Preface.&nbsp; Batteries are too heavy for airplanes to get off the ground. These two articles explain that in further detail. *** Viswanathan, V., et al. 2018. Why Aren\u2019t There Electric Airplanes Yet? It Comes Down to Batteries. Batteries need to get lighter and more efficient before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24671,24098,11859,24670],"class_list":["post-44483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-airplanes","tag-alice-friedmann","tag-energy-skeptic","tag-flight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44484,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44483\/revisions\/44484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}