4 ms·
DC to Boston and London to Paris both fall well within 500nm.
by kicat 5y ago
DC to Boston and London to Paris both fall well within 500nm.
- dsr_ 5y agoShort flights are dominated by ground transport times (door-to-door). Assume that you need an hour to get to a general aviation airport, and an hour from the other GA airport to your final destination. Assume that you are a qualified pilot and have a driver's license and access to cars anywhere you want to go. 280 knots puts you in the air for not quite two hours, so a full-length flight is 4 hours or so door to door, moving you 560 miles or so. That's quite an improvement over a 10 hour car trip. But a 4 hour car trip will get you 220 miles, whereas the EFlyer still needs 2 hours 45 minutes to do that. The EFlyer can't get you anywhere in less than 2 hours, so anything under 120-150 miles you definitely want to do by car. If you have a bunch of cities that you want to visit often, which are more than 200 miles apart but less than 500 miles apart, all of which have general aviation strips convenient to your destinations, and most especially if you have 4-7 other people who all want to make the same trips... this could be a winner. Or you could telecommute.
- manigandham 5y agoThis range is also the sweet spot for high-speed rail which is far more efficient, in energy and travel time. France has even banned short-haul flights for this reason.
- durandal1 5y agoBut why would they ban short hops for highly efficient electric aircraft?
- manigandham 5y agoThey didn't. There are no commercial electric aircraft yet. They banned current commercial airliners due to carbon emissions.
- durandal1 5y agoAn hour to get to a GA airport is really uncommon in the US, most people live within 20 min. If you're a pilot-owner, then sure, it adds to the time, however this aircraft will most likely be professionally flown.