Electric aircraft can recharge in flight from the sun. This will mostly be long endurance, high altitude utility aircraft, like Facebook/Titan Aerospace's wifi

Electric aircraft can recharge in flight from the sun. This will mostly be long endurance, high altitude utility aircraft, like Facebook/Titan Aerospace's wifi UAV or surveillance drones that can stay airborne indefinitely. These aircraft can be pseudo satellites without requiring a rocket launch. They must be extremely low in drag and weight efficient, with powerplant weight being a major issue because previously large electric motors have not had application in aerospace and have not been weight optimized as gas turbines have. Siemens has seen the growing market (QinetiQ Zephyr for another example) and is responding to it. We definitely won't be seeing any passenger aircraft electrically propelled anytime soon.