Everything is in place for electrically powered aircraft—except a practical battery.
A battery that can power a full-sized aircraft on operational missions is the current “Holy Grail” of the aerospace industry.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, is not a stranger to improved battery power, explained that Li-ion (lithium ion) batteries would need to achieve a 400 Wh/kg* energy density to power his electric aircraft. Currently, small two-seat aircrafts are flying for an hour at a time with only 300 Wh/kg batteries.
Meanwhile, Eviation Aircraft of Israel showed off an eight-seat electrically powered commuter aircraft at this year’s Paris Air Show. They expect to have sufficiently powerful batteries by 2020-2021 to begin testing the aircraft.
The fact is, significant investments in electrical power are being made across the aviation industry.
* Watts per hour per kilogram of battery weight