Modern Planes Are Green Part 3 - Electro-plane !
Electrically powered airliners are not for tomorrow, but they will be in service well before you would bet.
Different projects are running in parallel, and three of them communicated progresses recently. They can’t be compared easily as they don’t have exactly the same objectives.
The ELECTRA is an electrically powered aicraft relying on its battery only. The Hy-Bird is equipped with solar panels and a hydrogen-based generator, and aims at flying around the globe. SolarImpulse’s goal is also to fly around the world, but using solar energy only…At first, the ELECTRA. This is an extemely light aircraft (165kgs without pilot), which is powered by a 25 HP electrical engine fed by a lithium-ion battery. The prototype made its first flight - 50 kilometers in 48 minutes.
Hy-Bird project aims at flying nothing less than around the world ! It is propelled by an electrical engine which is fed by solar panels and hydrogen. The sole product of hydrogen generators is water. The plane by itself will be 100% ecological, but producing hydrogen is not exactly a green-ish process…
This is exactly the difference with SolarImpulse. This project lead by Bertrand Piccard also aims at flying around the globe, but using solar energy only. This makes the challenge harder… particularly at night !
The three projects have a common challenge: batteries are EXTREMELY heavy. A typical car battery weights 25 kilograms, and is by far not powerful enough to power the ELECTRA for 15 minutes. Battery technology evolved a lot last years and these projects will certainly lead to more improvements.
To realize their objectives, Hy-Bird and SolarImpulse will need excellent solar panels - much lighter and more efficient that what exist today. Any improvement in this area will serve all other solar panel applications, helping to fight global warming at a wide scale. One more time, aviation is serving the whole community…
This post is the third in a series about how modern planes are designed with maximal care to the enviroment. The first one was about Jet-A1 engines, and the second about composite materials and Computer Aided Design.
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