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Tesla Founder Elon Musk Dreams Of Electric Airplanes

• electromagnetic 18y ago
  Certainly possible. The Tesla Roadster's bodyweight is approximately 1,200 kg, the current Light-Sport Aircraft regulations (which is equivalent to most countries Ultralight regulations) put a vehicle with a max take-off weight at 600kg. Ultra-light engines are typically in the 80hp-120hp region, so it certainly looks plausible. I'm sure, if you stripped down a Tesla to bare necessities (IE no crash protection) the weight to horsepower ratio will be even better. So I wouldn't doubt you'd be able to make a fully electric airplane that is capable of flying a fair distance. In fact, fuel efficiency in airplanes can be better than most cars. Again the fuel efficiency can also be affected by the parts used (obviously li-ion would be the minimum, lead-acid would either weigh too much or you'd plummet to your death after 5 miles) and thin-film PV cells could easily be applied to a plane's broad wingspan, however this likely wouldn't increase the flight distance much (even with 100% efficiency and optimal conditions, your average ultra-light wingspan wouldn't ever produce the total power needed for a 80HP/60KW motor).
  • stcredzero 18y ago
    What about beamed power? With the power of modern electric motors, freed from the burden of carrying the batteries or fuel, there would be a tremendous gain in efficiency.
• deleted 18y ago
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• jballanc 18y ago
  I'd venture to guess that current battery energy density makes this a far-off dream. Certainly that could improve, and the idea that battery components might double as structural components is interesting. Still, one has to wonder whether it will prove to be greener/faster to develop electric airplanes or to develop carbon-neutral sources of petroleum-like products (i.e. Fuel from Bacteria).