Firms Team Up On Hybrid Electric Plane Technology (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Siemens are to develop hybrid electric engine plane technology as part of a push towards cleaner aviation. The E-Fan X programme will first put an electric engine with three jet engines on a BAe 146 aircraft. The firms want to fly a demonstrator version of the plane by 2020, with a commercial application by 2030. Firms are racing to develop electric engines for planes after pressure from the EU to cut aviation pollution. Each of the partners in the programme will be investing tens of millions of pounds, they said on a press call. The firms are developing hybrid technology because fully electric commercial flights are currently out of reach, a spokeswoman said.

Comments

Re:Jets aren't going away

[Shotgun]

Conceptually, a jet sucks air, heats it, then blows it out the back. A hair dryer is a jet. . . a crappy, low thrust, and inefficient one, but a jet nonetheless. All a high-bypass system does is suck more air which it doesn't heat quite as much. The bypass is just MORE exhaust. It is still all F=ma, with the bypass air being weighted to more 'm' and the "exhaust" air being weighted to more 'a'.