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We had Internet, Mobile phones and GPS becoming widely adopted in the same decade, I don't see why that wouldn't be possible. That being said I don't think the
by alex_duf 8y ago
We had Internet, Mobile phones and GPS becoming widely adopted in the same decade, I don't see why that wouldn't be possible.
That being said I don't think they will land and be adopted widely at the same time. I would see electric cars first, then more renewable energy, then self driving cars, then electric planes, all across two decades or so.
- sandworm101 8y agoElectric planes (at the size of boeing/airbus) are a long way away. In terms of energy density, batteries will have to be far better than diesel fuel if they want to succeed in big aviation. It has to be better because, unlike with fuels, a battery-power aircraft does not get lighter as it empties the tanks, which also means the frame has to be stronger to land at the takeoff weight. This becomes more and more an issue as you scale to larger aircraft. Lithium-ion batteries will never get to this point. Short of some new breakthrough technology, I don't see it becoming a thing in our lifetimes.
- rbanffy 8y agoThe plane being proposed is not purely electrical: it's powered by a turbine, think of a big APU, that powers the EDFs and changes the batteries, which don't need to be large enough to power the whole flight.