Transatlantic electric flights wouldn't be too hard. 1200km minimum hops could be done with next-gen battery tech and plenty of margin. ...Transpacific (i.e. r

Transatlantic electric flights wouldn't be too hard. 1200km minimum hops could be done with next-gen battery tech and plenty of margin. ...Transpacific (i.e. reaching Asia from North America) wouldn't be too hard as you can hop along Alaska and the Aleutians, but reaching Hawaii is a major challenge. To get to Hawaii from LA takes 3800km (at the edge of what you can do with L/D of ~40-50 and 500Wh/kg batteries). Taking the long way from the Aleutians to Midway cuts that down to 2600km for the minimum hop distance, which is perhaps feasible with a sailplane-like L/D and the next-generation lithium-metal and/or lithium-sulfur batteries (that are already demonstrated at the lab scale). Lithium-air is the breakthrough in battery tech people want, which will enable much easier transpacific flights at transonic speeds (rather than the ~Mach 0.50 speeds you'd be limited to for the most extreme high performance airfoils), like what people are used to already. Lithium-air would also potentially enable long distance supersonic electric passenger aircraft.