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The Electric Airplane Revolution May Come Sooner Than You Think (robbreport.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: An all-electric mini-airliner that can go 621 miles on one charge and replace many of the turboprops and light jets in use now -- flying almost as far and almost as fast but for a fraction of the running costs -- could be in service within three years. But this isn't another claim by another overoptimistic purveyor of electric dreams. It's using current technology, and the first planes are being built right now. In fact, the process of gaining certification from aviation regulators for what would be the world's first electric commuter plane has already started.
The pressurised Alice from Israeli company Eviation is a graceful-looking composite aircraft with one propeller at the rear and another at the end of each wing, placed to cut drag from wingtip vortices. Each is driven by a 260 kW electric motor, and they receive power from a 900 kWh lithium ion battery pack.
Alongside its 650 mile range, the pressurised $3 million-plus Alice can carry nine passengers and two crew, and cruise at 276 mph -- up there with the speed of the turboprops that are widely used in the commuter role, if not anywhere near that of jets. But crucially, says Eviation chief executive Omer Bar-Yohay, "operating costs will be just 7 to 9 cents per seat per mile," or about $200 an hour for the whole aircraft, against about $1,000 for turboprop rivals.
The pressurised Alice from Israeli company Eviation is a graceful-looking composite aircraft with one propeller at the rear and another at the end of each wing, placed to cut drag from wingtip vortices. Each is driven by a 260 kW electric motor, and they receive power from a 900 kWh lithium ion battery pack.
Alongside its 650 mile range, the pressurised $3 million-plus Alice can carry nine passengers and two crew, and cruise at 276 mph -- up there with the speed of the turboprops that are widely used in the commuter role, if not anywhere near that of jets. But crucially, says Eviation chief executive Omer Bar-Yohay, "operating costs will be just 7 to 9 cents per seat per mile," or about $200 an hour for the whole aircraft, against about $1,000 for turboprop rivals.
Why? a lear jet carries about the same amount of passengers.
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
For the vast majority of the flight most airplanes are nowhere near full throttle. According to the wiki page, the powerplant uses 280 kW at cruise speed and the 966km range includes a reserve. At this point we just don't have any real info other than these manufacturer provided numbers, and given that they have lots of incentives to hype up their plane, we have no reason to trust these numbers. Purely based on the data provided by the manufacturer it's all possible, but who knows how it performs in real life.
Are you kidding? Small planes are used to "puddle jump" between regional airports in the US, particularly in the NE, all the time. They have been for a long time, and I've flown on them many times. There is most definitely a use for a 9-passenger commercial electric plane.
Q400 is a bad example. It is a very inefficient turboprop, built for speed as a jet replacement for quick turnaround times. Since it is quite a bit faster, fewer units are required to serve a route. Also faster airplanes usually get higher (hence more efficient) flight levels from the ATC.
This is, by the way, why the cost per unit distance is the wrong measurement.
That Alice is not this kind of a commercial aircraft anyway, more a replacement for the King Air kind of aircraft, or, judging from the looks of it, is meant to directly compete with the Piaggio P180.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Yeah, I'd like to see an automated system handle a situation like Qantas 32. Or the Hudson crash.
And before someone goes "but most crashes are caused by pilot error": the vast majority of would-be crashes that would have been caused by automation are actually prevented by the pilots. Automation screws up all the time. In fact, many crashes that were caused by automation problems are actually classified as "pilot error" because the pilots should have been paying attention and prevented the crash. For example the Turkish Airlines crash in Amsterdam where the airplane stalled during a fully automatic approach, yet the pilots were blamed for not intervening when the airspeed dropped below approach speed. I have actually had a similar situation but reacted correctly, resulting in... an air safety report filed after landing. Didn't make the papers ;-)
A comparable turboprop (PC-12 and TBM 850, 6-8 passengers) has a variable cost of about $600 per hour to operate and a similar purchase cost:
https://www.avbuyer.com/articl...
The Q400 costs significantly more per hour: https://prijet.com/operating_c...
Looked pretty good till I got to the bit about only carrying 9 passengers.
I live in a city of about 150,000 people. The most common airplane operating out of our airport is the Beechcraft 1900D, which seats 19 people. Trips are to the closest centres, which are all within 300 km.
So 9 passengers is a little low for replacing these planes, but it's only off by a factor of two. And range is just fine. So there's a market right here for planes that aren't that far off from what this company is offering.