> Pipistrel Alpha Electro can fly 2 people more than 100km today, with an aircraft that's not at all optimised for electric flight. Pipistrel Alpha Electro is

> Pipistrel Alpha Electro can fly 2 people more than 100km today, with an aircraft that's not at all optimised for electric flight. Pipistrel Alpha Electro is basically a sailplane with an engine. It's designed to glide long distances without an engine. It's a beautiful design but it derives 0% of its lift from engine thrust, it has no VTOL capability, it's slow, and it's much lighter than the Lilium jet. And by the way it's marketed as a training aircraft rather than a passenger aircraft because Pipistrel is an honest company. There's no comparison. > Are they? They're using Zenlabs batteries, which claims to have already been verified their energy/power densities with a third party laboratory. Here's an article about the now-CEO of Zenlabs: https://qz.com/158373/envia-the-mysterious-story-of-the-battery-startup-that-promised-gm-a-200-mile-electric-car/ https://qz.com/158373/envia-the-mysterious-story-of-the-batt... > Charging these in 40minutes would take at most 500kW (I'm assuming 250kWh charged at 2C rate). You're assuming linear charging, and LiIon batteries don't work that way. You have to reduce the charge rate as the battery gets closer to full. This means if you want fast charging you have to break the battery into multiple pieces [electrically speaking] and charge each piece separately with its own high-current charger. And I seriously doubt they'd ever get FAA cert without a commitment to fully charge before takeoff.