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Yes, you'd need at least enough battery power to power not just the drive wheels, but the other things that engine power provides for like air conditioning. I w
by ac29 7y ago
Yes, you'd need at least enough battery power to power not just the drive wheels, but the other things that engine power provides for like air conditioning. I wonder how large a pack would actually be required (of course there are huge differences between airports - some of them youre in the air only a few minutes after leaving the gate, some it can be 20-30 minutes).
If it was a large amount of battery, it would be cool if the batteries were in a small autonomous vehicle that disconnected from the plane when it was time to spin up the main engines and returned on its own to be recharged. Seems like a solvable problem.
- sokoloff 7y agoAnecdote, but relevant, we were on the ground in Las Vegas in a 787-400 (an all-electric, no-bleed airplane) and due to a 15 minute ground hold while they sorted an issue with a brake indication, the APU powered pack alone was not able to keep up with the Vegas environmentals. (They couldn't run a main engine because they were doing maintenance in that area.) They were able to bring in ground-based chillers to take some of the edge off, but it was uncomfortably hot in the cabin with an APU running. A 787 may be ideal for an electric conversion (since it's already a no-bleed airplane). Even then, you probably might as well run the APU for electrics on the ground, since you're going to be carrying around that amount of weight anyway.