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Plans For London-Paris Electric Flight in 'Next Decade' Unveiled (telegraph.co.uk)
A start-up has unveiled ambitious plans to offer an electric-powered commercial flight between London and Paris in the next ten years. From a report: Wright Electric believes the proposed low-emission electric plane would offer a cheaper alternative to jet fuel for airlines and consumers. However, the start-up's bid to revolutionize short-haul flights relies on the continued advancement of battery technology. The company, who pitched to investors this week, would be forced to switch to a hybrid of aviation fuel and electricity if the advances in battery technology fail to materialise.
You know what will happen... I'd rather fly Apple airlines, only 1 type of drink is offered (Apple juice), 1 movie to watch (Pirates of Silicon Valley) & only 1 phone allowed onbaord (iPhone gold members club)
They would have to have the airplane largely designed and in early initial prototype to have it certified for commercial service in 10 years. This is pure bullshit seeking dumb investor money.
I approve: 'A fool and their money were lucky to get together in the first place.'
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
10 years you say?
Let me consult the chart.
I think for what they'll need the batteries will come out a a really huge factory. A Megafactory if you will.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Heh. All my plans are up in the air already...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Base it out of Reno. On outwards legs it will carry Tesla Battery packs from the Tesla Reno Battery factory. On inwards legs it will use Jet Fuel. So Battery Packs get delivered to where they are needed while doing something usefull
**Life is too short to be serious**
aviation fuel and electricity as the advances in battery technology fail to materialise for 50, Alex.
Short hops on passenger planes might be perfect for batteries now in development. Less noise and less pollution and maybe quite a weight reduction due to not carrying fuel and engines might make quite a difference. I do wonder if a bad landing would be more lethal than in a liquid fueled craft.
The problem with all battery operated vehicles is that as the batteries get depleted, their mass never changes. With Jet fuel, gasoline, etc, as the fuel gets depleted, the mass is reduced, and thus the energy required to move the vehicle is reduced.
I hope you filed a patent on this so you can have a Startup too!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Just launch the aircraft into the upper atmosphere from a railgun catapult built up the side of a mountain. Then it could use electricity generated by the propellers during descent to move the control surfaces.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
I think it might make greedy capitalists happy if it would work. What's better than charging batteries with Solar power and swapping them in and out of aircraft. No more jet fuel with all the hazards and transport costs. Not to mention price fluctuations. The only problem is that battery technology is probably 20 or 30 years away from making something like this possible. Still, I wish them luck.
Didn't they build the chunnel so electric trains could make that run? Seems silly to try and compete on that particular route.
I don't know the answer to this, so please be gentle. What about using hydrogen fuel cells for airplanes? The big problem with hydrogen fuel cells is that they require energy to breakdown water and different tubes for refueling. On the upside, it's high density chemical energy and you could safely jettison all of it before a crash which would save lives since (to my knowledge) the majority of fatalities in (survivable) plane crashes are from smoke inhalation from burning jet fuel.
Since power can be derived from Sol and they would be changing equipment anyway, why not use hydrogen fuel cells?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
If this thing ever comes to pass. I hope they break up the battery in smaller sizes and distribute them throughout the plane. I can't imagine the horror of a single huge battery hitting something on a crash landing.
This sounds great although I'm pretty sure my teleport startup will cut into their margins significantly. We will be offering London to Paris trips that are instant and cost only a few dollars.
We're just waiting for the technology to get us across the line but we've done a lot of thinking about the business model and we're pretty confident!
(BBC journalists feel free to call)
Maybe the plane could be powered by distributed AA-size batteries?
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-ni...
Such things are known in the industry as "paper aeroplanes".
SJW n. One who posts facts.
How about a more cogent argument. Sure electric planes will be possible, the real problem will be speed. That is of course the speed of the plane itself, this is a real double negative outcome, not only will passengers dislike the slow speed of the plane but it will naturally make it much more expensive. The longer the plane takes to make a flight, the less flights in can make and the greater the impact of that slow flight upon the capital return for that investment. Compare it what will be it's major competitor, high speed rail. The advantages of rail, it will be faster, it can provide high quality services much cheaper than a plane (a private cabin). About the only place for electric planes is the private market as legislation is likely to be introduced the excesses of the fuckwit class who desire to consume and pollute as much as possible, so private jets will likely end up being banned, straight up no excuse for that disgusting excess.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
There is already an electric train between Paris and London that takes between 2:16 and 3 hours + 30 min checkin time: The Eurostar through the channel tunnel.
As a rule of thumb, any train journey faster than five hours is faster from city-centre to city-centre than getting on a plane.
That is because there is so much time overhead before and after the actual plane ride - most of all, the journey to and from the airports.
The only benefit for taking this plane would be if you would change to another plane at the airport or if your actual destination is not in the city proper but closer to the airport.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
People used to think that, so Concorde was built, but it turned out that not very many people thought speed was enough of a problem to actually pay for it.
London to Paris is less than 350 kilometres.
Even a plane flying at 350 kilometres per hour or a bit less is going to take less time getting from one to the other than driving a car across either of those cities.
Especially because cars still have problems to cross at least 20 miles of sea, and a bridge does not exist.
Especially because cars still have problems to cross at least 20 miles of sea, and a bridge does not exist.
So these guys ought to try to sell us a bridge instead...
... methink, actually they do :-)
It exists, but it's a train tunnel. So you have to wait until your car is loaded on the train, and then you have to wait until your car is unloaded from the train. You are not actually driving your car through the tunnel.
Especially because cars still have problems to cross at least 20 miles of sea, and a bridge does not exist.
Twenty miles of sea inside Paris? That's in-Seine.
You know what is the biggest cost for trains, not the trains it is the tracks. So a smart new business opportunity would be camper train wagon. The Rail companies opening camper parks adjacent to major train links, where people can live in rail campers, a wagon all of their own, one they never need tow, in fact the car can be carried by the same train that is towing their camper.
New lifestyle for a transient population and it fills empty train tracks with more traffic. Need to shift you rail camper, just book it in, quick tow to junction and they hook you up, load up you compact car which no longer needs to pull a caravan and away you go to your new rail camp site, dropped off and away you go. You can travel in your camper, watching the country go by no muss, no fuss and depending on design it could go high speed.
Filling empty train tracks with a major business opportunity. Likely though light weight carriages need to be design along with a lighter engine and they simply use the track between normal passenger and cargo trains.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Takes a special kind of idiot to be unable to divorce science from politics. Did the devil put the fossils in the rocks too? Yeah? lol.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
It'll never fly.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.