Electric Planes: They Have Arrived

The Current State of Electric Aircraft Technology, a research backed investigation.
brilliant.org/ElectricFuture
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It’s no surprise NASA is developing an electric aircraft. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is absolutely convinced we’ll be flying in long distance electric passenger planes in the future. Companies like Rolls-Royce, Boeing, and Airbus are all exploring aircraft electrification. So what does the future hold?
We collaborated with aerospace engineers, NASA scientists, and veteran pilots to sort through the current electric aircraft research and evaluate the most promising new technologies based on performance, practicality, and economics.
We’ll provide a comprehensive overview of electric airplane technology, discuss the benefits and challenges, and then rank the most revolutionary electric planes. We discuss battery electric aircraft, hybrid aircraft, hydrogen aircraft and everything in between.
This piece primarily focuses on the state of the art in fixed wing electric aircraft for long distance passenger travel. EVTOL’s will be covered separately, as part of our ongoing series exploring the future of electric aviation.
•✓
Gentle Kisses on Both Cheeks European Style:
LEMMiNO - Infinity / lemmino-infinityaloft
Brad Clarkson behance.net/BradClarkson
Pslavi / pslavi
René Rosentraeger / @renerosentraeger
Rodrigo Magro Mañas / rmagro
Organizations:
NASA Armstrong nasa.gov
Tecnam tecnam.com
Airbus https//airbus.com
EPSII epsii.com
Faradair faradair.com
Joby Aviation jobyaviation.com
Tesla tesla.com/
SpaceX spacex.com/
Boeing www.boeing.com/
Wright Electric weflywright.com/
Zero Avia www.zeroavia.com/
Universal Hydrogen www.hydrogen.aero/
De Havilland dehavilland.com/
Harbour Air www.harbourair.com/
magniX magnix.aero
Pipistrel pipistrel.com
Emrax emrax.com
Rolls-Royce rollsroyce.com
Eviation eviation.co
Solar Impulse Foundation solarimpulse.com
Air Race E: airracee.com/
Article Format: www.electricfuture.com/electr...

[@ElectricFuture]

The FAA recently contacted me and requested permission to use this video in official training materials on powertrain electrification. So if you’re here from the FAA, sorry for the bad jokes.

[@Samsung-zg9ql]

Clever way of letting everyone know that the FAA appreciated your videos. 🤣🤣🤣

[@sepehra3980]

Weird flex but ok

[@SamtheIrishexan]

Because we all know that the government is worse at everything, including making teaining videos, especially training videos lol

[@ti994apc]

The FAA is going to ask for extended range for alternative landing sites for sure. They are the Airline mafia. And of course they will want to run an environmental impact study on electric engine noise impact on the spotted snail.

[@PrometheusForever]

@3:28 you said "contrails' think you meant to say chemtrails. Chrmttailsn8ncrease cloud cover by leaving behind a trail of barium And aluminum that doesn't disappate unlike "contrails".

[@No1sonuk]

This is one of those rare cases where I thought "I'll watch a few minutes and see how it goes" and 42 minutes later, I'm still watching. This is presented far better than most of the big TV science channels manage. Thanks

[@eggspanda2475]

agreed

[@Canadianhonkindiesel]

Indeed this was one of the best video presentations I have seen on KZbin in a very long time.

[@ragetobe]

My exact experience with this documentary.

[@blandeauxfillaskii7344]

40 minutes of failed tech, one example of a single manned flight, and somehow people are impressed.

[@No1sonuk]

@@blandeauxfillaskii7344 After decades of failure, a single flight of 120 feet heralded a revolution in travel. The date was December 17, 1903. The pilot was Orville Wright...

[@CowboyOdie]

Good video. My major concern it the extreme “all or nothing” mentality when it comes to “zero emission” and “all electric” vehicles. The hybrid engines you mentioned are good examples of necessary compromise - but such a compromise is unacceptable today. Pollitics of the moment would never accept 95% or 99% electric. Case in point, todays fully electric vehicles could double their efficiency and range with a very small, very simple propane heater (to warm the batteries and passenger compartments - saving precious battery charge for propulsion).

[@ernieengineer3462]

Excellent informative and well produced video. Worth the watch if interested in the future possibilities of aviation and electric power. Thanks for posting.

[@robertgiggie6366]

860 lbs of battery for 100 miles vs 318lbs full fuel load for 850 miles. We need a break through in battery technology before this is even remotely feasible.

[@Crowbar121]

Old comment but 318lbs of fuel will not get you very far at all

[@dbxbau]

yup never have beeen about the motor. always has been about the fuel source/battery

[@robertgiggie6366]

@@Crowbar121 that aircraft that was modified was rated for a range of 850 nm on a full fuel load.

[@Crowbar121]

@@robertgiggie6366 what air craft are u referring to

[@zyzzyva303]

Great video. Really like the format. Also you used "comprise" correctly. That won my sub. 😂

[@Cooe.]

Hydrogen (which makes little sense for cars) makes way, WAY more sense for most planes than battery electric.

[@techhelpwizardgenie3146]

Actually the energy density of hydrogen fuel cells is poor because of its storage volume. Liquid Hydrogen requires vastly more space and a more complicated storage system than gasoline. It is less efficient than fossil fuels (specifically gasoline) by an order of magnitude because of this. Just do a quick google of energy density, or check out a video by Thunderf00t on the topic. The key is storage methods and volume. Storing gasoline is easier and doesn't require a pressurized vessel. This vessel has to meet certain requirements to store liquid hydrogen (ie wall thickness and material composition). So not only do you have to store more weight via the fuel, but the vessels must also be taken into account, and they are quite heavy.

[@russelllowry1061]

That Hindenburg thing was a huge success.

[@Cooe.]

@@techhelpwizardgenie3146 I know all this already dumbass... -_- ... I literally said it makes no sense in cars for just that reason. But for commercial planes? It's MASSIVELY better. You don't need STUPID HEAVY batteries that don't lose weight over a flight (which absolutely KILLS battery electric efficiency for aircraft [NOT the amount of watts that actually make it to the electric motors, but the lbs of load / amount of lift provided]), refueling takes seconds, & the necessary hydrogen storage infrastructure is a perfect fit for major airports. Tanks of hydrogen aren't light, sure, but compared to the amount of Li-Ion batteries you'd need to lift a 747 & have a suitable range they basically weigh NOTHING! And for certain sizes of aircraft, battery electric is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE atm due to the necessary battery capacity weight straight up overloading the craft. (Said 747 is almost surely in this category w/ current battery densities).

[@WILLYBREATH_v]

@@russelllowry1061 ahhahahaa

[@BBB-999]

@Andrew Onymous I’m pretty sure that methane is worse than co2 but I might be wrong

[@gordonpeden6234]

Another day, and I've learnt something new. I had no idea Electric Planes were even a 'Thing' Jaw dropping planes actually flying around, smart people working together. I'm Amazed. Great presentation.

[@inyobill]

the technologies appear to be much more mature than I had thought. interesting schtuffs.

[@gudfarfar]

I just came across this channel, and I am impressed about the thorough research you have done on this topic. Good job! I am subscribing.

[@gudfarfar]

@@linyenchin6773 It is the message that should be in focus, and not the dialect.

[@LionheartedDan]

Comprehensive and well presented coverage of electric aircraft- thank you!

[@Enonymouse_]

Great video, Pipistrel has been one of my long time favorite trend setting companies. Although i'll never be able to afford it, i've wanted to fly their planes for a long time.

[@drofwarcnwahs2108]

Until there is a significant breakthrough in improving the power density to weight ratio it will remain a novelty. I wish them the best. They also have to figure out a way to ecologically dispose of these batteries along with eliminating the strip mining necessary to obtain the ore to build them.

[@TheSterlingArcher16]

There will never be mass transit electric planes. The inherent problem is energy density. To get more payload you need bigger batteries, but the extra energy is mostly consumed simply getting the extra battery weight off the ground. For that reason there will never be large or high payload commercial electric planes.

[@cuthbertallgood7781]

@@TheSterlingArcher16 I think you meant, "never be electric planes without better batteries." There's no inherent physics reason why we can't have very light batteries with ultra-high energy density. Not to say we'll definitely find a way to make them, but it's silly to dismiss the potential for future breakthroughs. If we get a better battery, then a lot of tech suddenly gets practical.

[@hgdolder]

@@cuthbertallgood7781 There are many inherent physics reasons. Chemical storage is very close to the maximum capacity predicted by the theory. Shawn Crawford is exactly right: A significant breakthrough is required, and you can't count on serendipity to develop a technology.

[@FRED-dq8jf]

Look at the electrical vehicles we using now, it’s the green power in the name, it will bring us environmental problems caused by batteries production and disposal.

[@fuzzywzhe]

@@cuthbertallgood7781 You're wrong, there is an inherent physics reason we can't have lighter batteries with higher energy densities. It's just chemistry. We can look at all the possible combinations of elements and see what maximum energy density is per gram. We could POTENTIALLY go to to fuel cells driven by hydrogen - but hydrogen isn't very efficient in terms of generating it. It's made by steam reformation of natural gas - in other words, it's just natural gas with the carbon stripped from it. Making it by breaking down water is around 50% efficiency, and then when you compress it, you lose even more energy. Batteries won't get significantly lighter than what we have now. We're really close to maximum energy density as it is. The obsession about having electric everything is misplaced. We'd be better of generating hydrocarbon fuel - we can do that from CO2 and steam + energy. The Nazis did it, over 70 years ago.

[@dxrocker6170]

THummbs up for content and your hard work bro...highly educative and and a good combo inbetween debating within and connecting topics

[@emilarifin5556]

Amazing video, so much innovation information in very short time. looking forward for the next level of electric planes with faster speed and longer flight distance.

[@missumenimsatanass]

There's a guy in Monticello Kentucky that is building one that is AMAZING!!! I watched the video and my jaw hit the ground when I saw what it did. I love it when average people build stuff like this and their product out does the ones from huge factories especially those that only make planes...haha. This country boy just happens to be very smart when it comes to aviation I guess. Everything about his electric plane out does every plane I saw on this video. It look bad ass also....thats what I like about it the most. It looks almost like a jet. Very sleek and looks super fast.

[@TechNed]

Rather a lot of ad breaks but a really well-researched and fascinating presentation.Thank you.

[@pranay1546]

This is an insane amount of work for electric planes. Good work man.

[@Delali]

The amount of information in this video alone is amazing. Thanks for putting this together

[@conlethbyrne4809]

Fascinating video. Lots of fuel for thought. Got to admire the folks behind all the e-planes. Cool video, Jay & look forward to watching more. It's the future. 🤩👍💚

[@BGuggz]

Just found this video today. Great information and amazing research. Though,one thing I feel wasn't touched on was the cell life of the batteries. There was a brief mention at 39:41, but the amount of battery waste and replacement cost due to limited cell life is another big concern.

[@ongcosed7282]

I can feel all the hard work behind making the research for this video!! Thank you for sharing 😁😁

[@warpeace8891]

Outstanding production, well done. It is very encouraging to hear such good news while so many mainstream sources of info focus on hyped up shock and awe bad news.

[@DrownedInExile]

Fascinating stuff! I'm sure we'll see short-mid-range viable electric aircraft soon. As for long-range, we'll need a battery-breakthrough for that.

[@JimMork]

I think in the "electric" category, there are already passenger drones. They don't need any specialized place to land. You could land in your back yard. But the issues in the are are still there. Don't want some conventional plane ramming you in the air.

[@LuizNunes74]

I saw the thumbnail and thought "Eh, let's see what this is all about". 42 minutes later I'm subscribed.

[@flexwinggpipi]

Yep , this vid answered all my questions that electric aircraft are coming.... but what about the ever increasing weight of the passenger.. Mmm

[@the.mr.beacher]

Less passengers per flight. Solved

[@edsantos6627]

🤣🤣🤣

[@turrafirmaguitarchannel]

Your mom?

[@edsantos6627]

@@turrafirmaguitarchannel 🤣🤣🤣

[@mddunlap03]

@@the.mr.beacher so something that cost as much as say a 737 plane that will cost more as a electrical vehicle up front is now supposed to carry 25% the number of people and only have limited range and will also move at 1/4 the speed of current jets? How can that be profitable, would you play 5k to fly from Ohio to Florida and need you to have a 2-3 hour layover and change planes half way through the flight?

[@martyscholes119]

When a longer video pops up on my feed, I tend to glance at the comments first. The reviews are so good that I subscribed before I even watched the video.

[@dennisworley6911]

LOL!

[@w8stral]

So, did you enjoy the snowjob of Bull Shit of useless grant money projects where the real goal was for the engineers to learn to build with composites, but getting grant money to learn these key modern skills is near impossible so instead try the "electric" bull shit angle instead. Every single engineer knows it is Bull Shit in the real world as everyone has been able to do a performance calculation based on energy density and efficiency going on 80 years now so.... yea.

[@martyscholes119]

@@w8stral That’s the nature of research: a lot of it goes nowhere.

[@w8stral]

@@martyscholes119 If this was research you would be correct. This is not research. Everything is known. New types of batteries is research.

[@cjpetronella5371]

That's what bots are for..............

[@guidedmeditation2396]

With a long enough power cord there is really no limit to how far or how long you could fly this plane. Really awesome.

[@yaash4123]

The longer the cord the heavier it is. 🙂

[@dodoboodrough6044]

HA HA HA HA HA HA! Yeah and when they run out of electricity they will have to borrow the battieris out of their lap tops, and cell phones to keep from crashing!!

[@rdsieben]

For large airliners to be fully electric, it cannot defeat the law of physics. You will never see an electric airliner with a range of 3,000 miles and/or can fly over 500 MPH. Ground transportation is possible but not commercial air transportation.

[@nettlesoup]

Instant subscribe based on watching this incredible (now favourited) video that I shall need to watch again. Thank you!

[@rjk471]

Accidentally stumbled upon this video. Never knew such a quality content about electric fans existed. Very informative and excellent content. Well done. Subscribed already and looking forward to more videos.

[@beautyaiyana2544]

@@antimanbiden717 You can reach her through her investment Telegram page.

[@valf.4589]

Still a long way for commercial use. Two challenges 1. range 2. payload (ie battery weight impact.)

[@nathingriffith281]

I don't fly at all, but this is a cool idea that others can use. I'm sticking to my truck personally.

[@garyjohnson1466]

Excellently produced, realky outlined the problems electric aircraft have, thank you really enjoyed this, give one alot to think about...

[@kimgoertzen4527]

Like many others, I watched your video and was very impressed. I subscribed immediately. Great job on your research.

[@ElectricFuture]

Thanks Kim!

[@martinmb6067]

Brilliant!

[@python27au]

9:00 make the wing small and optimise for high speed flight. Use an alternate propulsion system when slow. What happens when you lose all power? You have no propulsion and not enough wing to glide?

[@cpypcy]

If we had batteries that would have 100x higher energy density, we'd be set for so much technology change.

[@fredbrandon1645]

If wishes were pennies beggars would ride. Or just round up a dozen genies

[@raistraw8629]

Sadly, this is probably not gonna to happen.

[@richardbaumeister466]

Lots of info in a fairly short Video Great Job!

[@thomasboomer9809]

Batteries remain the biggest hurdle to overcome. Even short hops are not reasonable. As a frequent business traveler, I know there are weather events that can keep a plane from landing and keep you in the air an extra hour or more. Electric planes cannot stay in the air an extra hour.

[@phalanx3803]

as a business man you would well a truly know about turn around times and that is massive for planes they cant sit around waiting for a battery to charge. i live in line with a regional airport run way see them fly over every day they dont spend more then 30 mins on the ground before there back up. and the limited flight time this is one massive problem planes that come here have to have enough fuel to return to there origin airport just in case the weather is so bad and theres no chance of waiting it out they have to go back. also power a small county side city like ours doesn't have the ability to provide the power for a damn 737 size plane.

[@thomasboomer9809]

@@phalanx3803 That's another issue to be sure. Good point. They could probably work around that though by having charged battery packs ready to go, so that ground crews just swap them out.

[@geoffnottage8894]

I am a retired military/civil pilot. The requirement for holding and diversion fuel in conventional aircraft is established by regulation, therefore the same regulations would apply to the energy reserves of a battery powered or hybrid aircraft. Battery exchange on the ground would seem an option but small regional aircraft fly multiple sectors per day. Not only would this require a lot of batteries at various airports but one wonders about wear and tear on critical connectors. The issue of lightning strikes shouldn’t be a problem in the air anymore than for conventional aircraft but I would be interested to see the effect on the lightweight materials used for the structure.

[@phalanx3803]

@@geoffnottage8894 lightning strikes is something i have never thought of on a normal plane it goes around the using the skin but and electric plane would need thick cables to provide power to the engines it would need a butt load of insulation to stop it from jumping to the cables on the inside same with the battery's that much high conductive metal on the inside is just asking for lighting to jump. this would be a big problem if not handled properly as most large aircraft get struck around one or more times year. as for the light weight materials yea that can be another problem if not handled properly Bristow Helicopters Flight 56C got struck by lighting on the tail rotor the Composite material couldn't handle the energy and exploded.

[@sonicsound84]

From what ive hard, seen and, read. The bent wingtips are to accommodate larger wingspans at airports without having to reengineer the terminals.

[@josiahfugal5407]

Fascinating contribution to this discussion. As I see it, electric aviation is still constrained by several things: 1. The efficiency of propeller-based aircraft greatly decreases with altitude, which means that long-range electric aircraft cannot take advantage of low-drag high-altitude flight like mainstream jets can. Never mind that there is a hard limit to how fast any propeller aircraft can fly. Transatlantic flights in a long-haul-propeller-electric airliner would be tortuous. 2. the aircraft/payload weight ratio is still untenable for high-volume adoption, especially for longer routes. The most optimized revolutionary design from Israel that you mentioned is 60% battery and it only carries about a dozen passengers for less than a thousand miles. It doesn't help that battery mass does not decline with its consumption. 3. Hydrogen is a dangerous fuel. It's basically corrosive and difficult to contain at any temperature, especially at cryogenic temperatures necessary for high-density storage. It's costly to manufacture as well (a lot of the energy put in to electrolysis doesn't end up as hydrogen). Any leak can be deadly to your aircraft, since the threshold energy for combustion is extremely low (you could end up blowing your plane out of the sky just by a tiny hole in a tank). 4. As much as battery tech is talked up, I don't think battery energy density will increase all that much in the future. Li-ion batteries already are pretty dense, considering they are already made of lightweight materials and do not require a reactant to release their energy. (Consider that all jet fuels use oxygen to release their energy - oxygen which is not stored, but simply pulled from the atmosphere.) Safety becomes a big concern once you put too much energy in a small space, especially if there aren't natural safeguards against runaway energy release. Jet fuel requires relatively specific circumstances to combust which are easy to prevent even in the case of a tank leakage. One can't say the same for batteries. It does not surprise me that this has found appeal in markets where the high ratio of aircraft to payload and the very limited range is acceptable. I do not really see how hybrid or hydrogen aircraft will be more economically viable than jet fueled aircraft when it comes to high-payload or long-range flight. I'm honestly banking on more sustainable sources of jet fuel rather than battery technology. We're literally swimming in sources of carbon and hydrogen, and liquid hydrocarbons are ridiculously practical for storing and releasing energy. Either way, your video was well written and sourced. Thankfully not clickbaity or hyper-enthusiastic like a lot of fake science channels on this site. Kudos for that.

[@crhu319]

Magnesium hydride paste is how you safely carry hydrogen. Hybrid models with pure electric drive will dominate initially. The main objective is to eradicate GA fuel which is leaded. No need for that if combustion just runs genset.

[@roneagle8038]

You made a believer out of me with this most excellent video. You also made me a subscriber. Thanks!

[@EcnalKcin]

A believer in what exactly? Electric planes were never impossible, they were always impractical. They still are. The issue is scaling and energy density. Smaller planes are going to be the easiest to make electric, and currently they are slow and of limited range for a 1 seater. The only currently viable passenger plane design that is shown in this video seats 11 people and 60% of its load capacity is battery. That is about as big as an electric plane can get currently. It would take huge jumps in battery energy density technology to build an electric passenger jet with any meaningful capacity and would likely also require structural elements to be able to act as secondary battery capacity. It might not even be possible to do with lithium based batteries as the theoretical limit is about 1/10 the energy density of jet fuel. That means the engine and the aircraft design have to be substantially more energy efficient in order for a conventional passenger jet to be electric. Such designs would also likely be slower, so longer flights, but that is going to have to be a trade off that comes with the technology. On a side note, nearly everything Elon Musk said at the end of this video is based on his wishes, and not reality. His supersonic vertical take off electric jet idea is about as realistic as the hyperloop, the tesla semi, or the LA loop. The last of which is now "finished" and you can go and look at videos of what it was supposed to be and compare it to what it actually is. Which is to say, it aint ever going to happen, but maybe he will eventually produce something loosely in that realm with far lower performance and claim it as a success.

[@roneagle8038]

@@EcnalKcin Senor Mucho Pomposo: Think pretty highly of yourself? You sound like a troll. Are you one?

[@EcnalKcin]

​@@roneagle8038 Well I now think higher of myself than I think of you for sure. You sound like an idiot. Are you one?

[@sandyt4343]

@@EcnalKcin there was an argument much along those lines when the steam engine was being replaced by the diesel electric. Many people never wanted to give up steam and said that nothing would replace it. Of course energy density is the issue with batteries, but throwing up our hands and saying we can’t fix it is a self for filling prophecy. With this many people working on it, you can believe it’s going to happen . If we had said that lead acid batteries are the only possible way to store energy and given up at that point lithium ion would never have been discovered. But a great deal of people resist change because they can’t envision losing the status quo or they have too much invested in the current technology to part With what we know is ultimately going to write our ticket to planetary oblivion.

[@EcnalKcin]

@@sandyt4343 "With this many people working on it, you can believe it’s going to happen" That is not how science works. If it was, we would have a cure for cancer. Oh sure, someday it may happen, but it could be a hundred plus years from now. We are not talking about minor battery advancements, we are talking about something that isn't even theoretical at this point. I would say we are about as close to having the energy density we need as we were to fusion power in the 50's. Maybe further as we at least knew that fusion was possible in the 50's at this time they have no idea how to get the kind of energy density required out of batteries. "But a great deal of people resist change because they can’t envision losing the status quo or they have too much invested in the current technology to part With what we know is ultimately going to write our ticket to planetary oblivion." You do realize producing batteries actually creates more pollutants right? Also, the energy that charges them still has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is usually dirty coal plants. Although we actually have a source of mostly clean energy with today's technology in the form of fission power, but most people are ignorant about it. Fission power is less harmful, and more environmental friendly than any other form of energy, including wind turbines, and solar panels, but because there have been all of 3 nuclear meltdowns that resulted in very few deaths and some local environmental damage, everyone dismisses fission power without ever educating themselves on it.

[@t9342]

Excellent video, great piece of work, well researched and narrated. I enjoyed watching and have subscribed. Thanks.

[@cianryan4071]

"Due to the nature of flight and the grim reality of gravity..." Love it!

[@juliusfucik4011]

consequences... not reality

[@RatBagDad]

You mention the lack of noise as a selling point. I LOVE the noise during take off in a big jet!.. I'd absolutely hate to be in a quiet tin can and not have that theme park rush. The rumble, the bellowing engines.. it all makes you really feel how hard you are punching physics in the face to fly in the first place!.

[@Xyler94]

You and I have vastly different loves. I'm not saying it's quiet I prefer, but to me it's not the sound, it's the torque and power. I don't care how you get it, but that feeling of being thrown back into your seat as the plane moves is great. I don't care if it's silent, but over a long enough flight, silence is great. It's why I don't fly without noise canceling headphones anymore. You seem to enjoy the power of the engines though. Can sound like a beast but if it's got no power, would you prefer an engine that sounds great but doesn't have power? Or a silent engine with massive power? Is an interesting question. One many don't like to answer. Me? Power, give me that power. It's why I'm so fascinated by electric cars.

[@RatBagDad]

@@Xyler94 It's both to be perfectly honest. I grew up surrounded by motorbikes. Learnt to ride from a very young age, The feeling of the engine beneath you, the vibration, hence I used the word rumble in my original comment. That is a huge part of it all for me. On a bike you are so close to the machine that you are a part of it, to the point where your body and how you position yourself is integral to how the bike handles. But the noise is also important, the roar of the engines and the wind. It's all part of the exhilaration of the power of motion. Even the smells are part of it. Those distinct 2-stroke & 4-stroke fumes take me back to a hundred happy memories. - I've been in electric cars, sure you have instant torque and that's fine. But it lacks something. Going from zero to fast isn't the whole deal for me I guess. I just prefer engines to be audible. I could listen to those old V12 4-stroke Merlin engines from Spitfires and Hurricanes just ticking over all day long. I'm not saying I don't like electric motors, they have their place. and the world would be worse off if they didn't exist. I'm just getting old and I like what I like. So I suppose to answer your question - Neither would satisfy me, a noisy low power engine or a silent high power one. Both, to me, would be insufficient to excite me. I hope that answer helps. May you find many others who care enough to share.

[@Xyler94]

@@RatBagDad "It lacks something" which is that sound you like. You associate fun with loud sounds of engines. It's not bad, but we can't hold onto emotions anymore. Can't have the fun of a car and engine if there's no more planet earth. So while I get the enjoyment, technological advancements excite me much more personally. I really like the bleeding edge of tech, and seeing people tackle this problem is amazing. All this to say, I get where you're coming from. I just think performance and the way a vehicle moves around is more important than the sound of an engine. Because like I said, would you prefer a nice sounding weak engine, or a silent but powerful motor? Driving fun is more than simply noises, and my gosh I hate those who exaggerate their car's exhaust. Especially on weak engines...

[@lesnicholas2433]

Absolutely brilliant,learnt so much thanks👍🏻

[@justaguy6216]

Fun fact: The tip design is more to do with aircraft standard sizes than to do with vortex management. The only thing that passively reduces the vortexes (hence reducing lift induced drag) is a large aspect ratio, which is a ratio of a wing's length and width, i.e. the longer and skinnier the wing is the less drag it produces. Hence you see gliders have very long skinny wings. So to solve the issue of lift induced drag you simply have to increase the wings length, however, there are limits to wingspans of aircraft, hanger size limitations, airport limitations and other factors, you can't make the aircraft to wide, or you'll go up into a higher aircraft class and pay more hanger fees and rents. So manufacturers come up with these wing tips, they effective increase the length of the wing within increasing the total wing span too much, however it is less efficient than just having a longer wing. Hence new planes like the 777x have folding wing tips, theg fold up when in the airport and stored, but fold them down right before take off. To get the best of both worlds. It's even stranger with private jets, more often than not customers ask for wing tips because they look good, even tho they might actually hurt fuel efficiency compared to simply a longer wing. Ik the video glossed over it, I just wanted to give extra info.

[@wesstubbs3472]

Excellent narration and editing. Thank you for not having obnoxious, loud music.

[@jordancambridge4106]

The first electric plain did not have batteries on it but those were in fact transistors that transferred the voltage from the electric power cord that it was connected to. It has a 50 foot electric cord and it did not fly at 7 miles and hour but instead blew up after 2 inches off the ground.

[@JanneWolterbeek]

I’ve almost always sat at the window, and marvel how I can jut sit there and fly.

[@LoriCleveland]

Great video! I study a lot on ev aviation and you hit the marks!

[@Christopher_S]

Colour me surprised. This video was recommended to me, and from the thumbnail I thought this was absolutely going to be clickbait. Wow it isn't, but what it is, is a fantastic documentary! Super interesting, super informative and super educational :)

[@patricofritz4094]

Can you tell me where the aircraft in the thumbnail is in the video and what it is in real life ? Thank you .

[@doyennesavant1141]

there is absolutely NO promising results in battery research .. all this hype needs be stopped.. we have pushed material based batteries to it's very physical and chemical boundaries and there is NO scalable improvement in sight. Yes there are marginal improvements that keep happening but in order to support applications such as fully electric commercial planes, we need a game changing leap in the battery industry that increases capacity and lowers weight by orders of magnitude. This phase is not even opened up yet, let alone if it does and then becomes commercialized decades later. For now, we are taking baby steps in switching some functions in planes to electric, adopting a hybrid model. Battery industry is based on the same concepts of 200 years ago and no improvement will take us anywhere without a major overhaul of battery fundamentals.

[@amburger1984]

my brain needs better battery like dat to even comprehend this

[@doyennesavant1141]

LOL

[@gregorytoews8316]

Completely true! Also ignored by many is the fact a battery powered aircraft must land at takeoff weight. A serious disadvantage.

[@simon6071]

@@amburger1984 Doyenne Savant's opinion regarding the limitations of present battery technology as a power source for commercial planes, especially the intercontinental ones, is correct, relevant and appropriate. Knowing that you have a completely empty KZbin channel, I'm not surprised that your brain found it hard to comprehend his opinion at all. I hope you are not one of those mislead people who have no no problem believing the global warming scam while having problem understanding a real scientific analysis about the infeasibility of long range commercial flights powered by batteries.

[@amburger1984]

yes of course, I haven't even learnt to read

[@xcrimsinx]

Batteries are not efficient enough, nor are they light enough for the use in planes

[@calebchampion7781]

@Rolf Jander there is a major difference between commercial flight and amateur/ hubby flight .

[@DownTheRabbit-Hole]

Not impossible, but with current technology, unrealistic, impractical, cost prohibitive. Another dumb idea from left-wing ideologues that live in a fantasy world based on fear-mongering and dismal science climatology, where ALL their computer models have been wildly inaccurate when compared to observations. The left will never let Facts and Physics get in the way of their Fiction and Fantasy.

[@mgevirtz]

Dude, this is the best commercial I have ever seen!

[@derstef8032]

All of this "Grean Deal " is just Bullshit ! And it not just begin with Al Gore Fake-Documentary . It's a scam ! Just a small group of corrupt Gangster ( we are used to call those criminel Bastards Politicians and NGOs ) making trillions of Dollars out of this fraudation ! You and me pay the bill before we die ! But the funny part of it is that the Greta Thunberg - Culture is making themself to the perfect slave for the future ! If they get an order from above, they'll do anything without a doubt to follow their leader - like they always used too do ! This kids have no idea of, in what kind of evil Dictatorship they're running into ! This poor kids will (if) wake up in the middle of a Nightmare .

[@91PKPower]

Yes, noise complaints were the Concorde‘s Achilles heel, but it was more the sonic booms the plane kept emitting and not so much the engines.

[@mtebaldi1]

This video was very informative on the innovation of electric flight. Very impressive in my opinion. But I'm just a layman in the field while understanding the basics of the technology.

[@rhtcmu]

Concur on coverage and fidelity. Thanks!

[@00708046]

I loved the presentations of the newer technologies. I'm no expert but I understood the concepts and applications and can see that this was a factual documentary . I believe that this technology is about to experience new sciences that will open new doors . Nicola Tesla had the open mind that was necessary to concieve new technologies and others will follow.

[@eugeneminton2613]

ok so i have a question. lightning strikes with aircraft in flight, would they create more of an issue for electric systems? now i assume planning and practice are both incorporated to reduce or eliminate this issue, but idk what is the process, materials etc... that and i worry about solar flares polarizing motors. or if you want to think about it an emp weapon or effect... would that cause an electric aircraft to crash? costs related to protection for this effect may be high???? idk, how do you protect a motor or battery from an emp effect?

[@jdbreaux8080]

What a beautiful design! I wished the Beechcraft Bonanza V-tail were further tested as it reduces structural failure of the more common T-tail. Otherwise, I'd like to go back to the tail on the Super Constellation L-1049. But that creates more point of failure and why I love the V-tail Bonanza. Lets do some more stress testing on the V-tail against the T-tail with large passenger aircraft. Meanwhile, not only 'yes', but 'hell yes' when it comes to flying an electric powered aircraft! Airplanes love to stay airborne, so it doesn't scare me at all. Bring it on Boeing!

[@Delali]

Nasa is always at the center or in the conversation on everything flight. As a tech giant into Space flight and research, I believe they've done a great job keeping up and contributing to the cool things going on around the world.

[@michaellydon4119]

The breadth, depth, and quality of the coverage in this episode is outstanding. Excellent work on a fascinating subject. Kudos to you.

[@ElectricFuture]

@beyond the wheel I thought it was pretty appropriate Color commentary regarding the relative danger and hilarity of the whole situation. 👨‍✈️

[@srice8959]

@@ElectricFuture I’m so GLAD I found your page earlier today! This truly was a Great video, and your Sub’s should be so much more with the quality you produce!! Hopefully your page will grow. I’m mostly definitely going to be telling my friends about this page for sure

[@srice8959]

@@ElectricFuture I agree I found it funny. Especially because I could have pictured my mama saying the same exact thing to my dad if that was us

[@TheBleuakuma]

My balls next please smh

[@wildancrazy159]

@@TheBleuakuma Why?

[@buddysteve5543]

It's not only an issue of finding enough power for the motors but also, those battery packs can handle only so many recharge cycles before they need to be replaced. Unless we have some huge advancements in motors and/or battery technology, I can't see electric planes being the norm anytime soon or at least, not anytime in my lifetime!

[@GoCoyote]

Something I forgot to mention, and something known to people in the aircraft industry, is that every aircraft engine needs a complete overhaul or replacement after a certain number of hours, and this is very expensive. So far the commercially available electric training aircraft use for flying lessons have batteries that last twice as long as the engines, and cost about the same or less as replacing or overhauling engines, so save the flight training companies a lot of money.

[@thephilpott2194]

As always the energy/weight ratio is the killer; we're not quite there...yet, at least. The challenge of making an electric a/c fly could be matched by the challenge of persuading people to climb aboard. Sod that, i'm a bit of a dinosaur i'm afraid. My favourite type of a/c to be aboard is one with a pair of petrol engines, and with single engine capability.

[@cronobactersakazakii5133]

Well, just add a peddling system on each passenger place and there is your backup ;-)

[@TobiasDettinger]

Yep this is the biggest problem and the only problem to date. The weight of the batteries is yet too high, the enrergy density have to be better and comparable to gasoline.

[@crhu319]

@@TobiasDettinger no they don't, hybrid approaches work fine.

[@OnePieceSS23]

@@crhu319 This discussions is about fully electric, hybrid are a entire different subject

[@JimMork]

How about an electric powered glider? And what was that plane with enormously long wings that tried and maybe succeeded in circumventing the planet. I forget how long ago I saw that.

[@NisarAhmad-jr6ol]

What an eye opener video about future aviation technologies. Loved it.

[@NaumRusomarov]

this is genuinely an impressive video.

[@TheRealGlennCooper]

This was a great video! Very well researched and very well done. Thanks!

[@kielmeakin4901]

Came for engineers, left when the banking invester appeared

[@guillermoelnino]

grifters gonna grift.

[@TorstenHQ]

great documentary. i learnt a lot. so well researched. keep up the good work!

[@troy9er]

Excellent, subbing!!! I fly All Electric RC models. Have only flown Electric models. Brushless motors have really made a high leap in performance just like lite LIPO batteries!!! I have a multiplex Delta wing that was GPS tracked at 131 MPH about 5years ago. This technology is really coming along fast!!!😉

[@SilvaDreams]

Too bad it doesn't scale with size, works fine with super lights and gliders but quickly fails for anything larger and heavier as you need exponentially more batteries which quickly out weigh the lifting power.

[@troy9er]

Yea but they are making unbelievable progress! Look into it deeper, could work for smaller personal aircraft.

[@jamesbizs]

@@troy9er they are not tho. At all. Not even close to real engines

[@albertwolanski7688]

There is a sequence of events that need to take place; Steam engine->steam turbine Gasoline engine->jet engine Electric motor->some sort of jet created by electricity, still waiting.......

[@tommichael3042]

Great ideas, inventions and achievements.....one day, the world will get better with energy options. Nice video and is educative. Well done!

[@tipshacks3011]

39:05 "There's too many things to be invented still" YES! to electric future!

[@malcolmn.5222]

Hope those nuclear plants are running at full capacity

[@hmlxur54]

Brilliant presentation!

[@kumnop7116]

Voaakhmery Kamera

[@mobiledetail4you]

The creation of the “new combustion engine” I saw the other day here on KZbin. Used as a electric generator may actually mean electric aviation is very doable. The weight of the motor vs output was literally insane vs All other current combustion engines…

[@SixDasher]

The Hybrids? Those are BS and not a solution to anything. For cars it's just a tax write-off while still running the same, or even worse, ICE. People like to kid themselves so they can feel righteous and tingly inside.

[@crhu319]

Correct. Hybrid with pure electric drive is the immediate win. Kills leaded GA fuel.

[@isaks3243]

I am the one that love the engineering in planes, but I am not a window type guy. I think it is more comfortable in the isle. but I do agree with you here, planes are cool

[@FlyingMike]

GREAT video ! I really enjoyed this video. Thank you

[@kamauwanyoike573]

Stumbled on it too while randomly browsing. Very well researched and presented. Two of my fav passions - clean energy and aviation - I am in heavean. Quite impressed by the Eviation advancement so far. The future looks bright.

[@dennisworley6911]

Yes maybe in the long turn....but we must work for global justice in the short term and stop climate change NOW!

[@SuperPhunThyme9]

Future isn't bright at all when it comes to clean energy. The direction of the entire clean energy industry is being directed by popular culture rather than science. I have never worried about the environment until I realized that, and it's the worst thing that could ever happen.

[@WhiteWolfos]

@@SuperPhunThyme9 We're in the mid zone. It's part popularity and part need of clean energy. The more drastic our climate impacts those with influence, the more push for clean alternatives will surface. Environmental laws are almost totalitarian towards certain businesses already, and eventually what the norm of energy use is now will change again in a decade or two. On the down side, Electric companies are growing enormously because of it and so the price of electricity will go up for consumers. Some advice of getting a long term fixed lease if possible.

[@SuperPhunThyme9]

@@WhiteWolfos the issue is when a clean energy infrastructure that requires X subsities, its for the same reason any materials or equipment costs more than another; that, essentially the sourcing+mfr+maintainence of said infrastructure costs more fossil fuels than simply using those follis fuels directly. Now one could argue that "jump starting" an industry could push the tech over that tipping point, but that is not the intention of many....and aside from these small percentages, most people involved in this, from public/voters to politicians to philanthropists, most people are just blindly pushing as hard as they can for anything popularly considered 'green' at the time, with no regard to this fundamental issue ....this makes it very possible that, who knows, maybe 90% of the efforts toward the clean energy movement are resulting in little more than us burning more of our limited supply of oil, at the day's end. Personally i think they are teaching environmentalism to kids way too young, when they don't even understand how the world works yet, which sets them into a simplistic position on the matter, and makes alot of people push it more religiously than logically later in life. Its so bad that even some scientific papers ive read by climatologists with a very obvious bias toward one result in the language, which have had ridiculous omittions from the data to allow for the conclusion they came to....one was,for example on the effect of soot on the albedo of the arctic (soot in the air seems to cool the planet by reflecting UV I think?)...and it was obvious from the wording they wanted to show that it is offset by the reduction of reflectivity when it's deposoted on ice/snow, and to get their result, they treated the polar ice as static surfaces, so they could calculate several months worth of deposits on the ice to get the results, when in reality, you get something like an inch if fresh snow laid down each day, and rarely more than a few days without any, basically increasing their calculated average soot surface deposits by maybe 50-300x. Something insane like that. I would have just assumed it was a mistake, but I know people like that and they'll tell you, straight up that pushing this movement is more important than accuracy (i.e. truth/science). Thats where I think it crosses the line into dogma...and THAT is where my biggest concern lies as far as climate goes--its the wrong direction.

[@floriankrause7203]

Overcoming gravity compared to overcoming rolling resistance is wasting energy, no matter if electric or fuel powered.

[@georgelionon9050]

"in anticipation of breakthrough battery technology"... oh that's the part where the magic comes in?

[@PapaTanGh0stNI9htM4R3S0nMaInSt]

Electric hybrid gliders would be a start E Taurus looks way cool go Alice.

[@mihaelavbelj8542]

It is not: "would be", they are in use already. Another company not far from Pipistrel is producing add-on kits for gliders with aux electric motor powered folding props and battery. Some even capable of taking off the ground.

[@LFOVCF]

Certainly encouraging developments. Well done also to the narrator, for a super slick narration.

[@ElectricFuture]

im the narrator, writer, filmer, janitor, and also the guy in the plane. 😁

[@srs2388]

It'll be more practical once they improve the battery. They do have many experimental batteries, like one that uses diamonds. Once they're able to harness fusion, everything will take off exponentially. Who knows when that'll happen, and be reliable and safe. It's really an interesting prospect.

[@zinc_ave]

"oh shi-" "Did you just drop the EMP device?" "......well yeah..but.li-" plane falls from sky *

[@yolo_burrito]

These hybrid units are interesting. Especially because APU’s are already generating high electric power in some planes. The 787 has bleed-less tech meaning the APU generally starts the main engines with electric power.

[@rogerfroud300]

I guess you'll need a sophisticated control system in the event of the loss of power from one of the wing tip motors. The assymetric thrust would cause a near instant uncontrolled spin unless the small motors on the other side ramp up immediately to resolve the imbalance.

[@Ont785]

You mean like a 747?

[@KXSocialChannel]

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have an electrical fault. Nothing to worry about though: We have plenty of parachutes."

[@guillermoelnino]

no, wait. apparently that weighed the plane down too much so we had to throw them out along with your luggage.

[@vytasrauckis6703]

I stopped after 5 minutes because there was NO mention that battery efficiency craters as the temperature gets colder than 32 deg F., something that absolutely happens in high altitude flight. And if you are using the electricity to heat the batteries, you still lose efficiency from having to heat them.

[@forfluf]

My idea is to keep the plane tethered to a power source right up until rotate which takes most of the energy. When it reaches a certain altitude the tether is disconnected.

[@ElectricFuture]

draw me a picture 😁

[@forfluf]

@@ElectricFuture All EFV would be going down the runway with a self powered direct electrical connection vehicle joined with a quick release mechanism that releases the plane and provides power to the plane for as long as it can. At the end of the runway the DECV retracts its connection arm so it can deflect into an off runway small tunnel to prevent collision at the end of the runway.

[@aftermax01]

Basically little electric engines in the wheels, with WiFi electricity from the takeoff "road" (not mother tongue) to speed up and gain takeoff speed?

[@pauljmeyer1]

@@ElectricFuture I gather he means an electric catapult.

[@Cloxxki]

There is some promising work done on electric powered air plasma pulse jets. Pen scale only so far, I believe. Might be the way to go supersonic.

[@jhh631]

A Concorde can easily go beyond supersonic speeds and that passenger jet had its first flight over 50 years ago. Only downside is that it requires lots of fuel to fly (as every jet to reach that speed) which could be solved with some form of sustainable biodiesel (e-fuel).

[@asaucytime]

Nicely done. Thank you I enjoyed the information.

[@itzsleazy6903]

This is hands down the best thumbnail I've ever seen.

[@nolmirk2267]

i like electric, but my main concern is how are we going to deal with all the waste from batteries and mining all the stuff needed? I feel like we're just shifting from one end of trashing the planet to another without really looking into repairing instead of just throwing away. Right to repair needs to be on the top of the list just for starts.

[@samueldelacruz2659]

That's why AMBRI is developing a battery made from silicon and calcium.

[@nolmirk2267]

@@samueldelacruz2659 ill have to take a look at that.

[@PeterLawton]

Considering how long batteries already last, just throwing them in the trash would be far less garbage than weekly household trash. And I'd bet recycling them for the key minerals would be far more productive than just throwing them away. Have you seen old cars shredded and crushed for recycling? I'm very impressed by that. I know there is a ton of junk in there, like upholstery, plastics, etc, but it's still more cost-effective to recover steel and iron that way than it is to mine it from dirt. I've seen that, too. It amazes me that mining is profitable at all, when you see all the other dirt that has to be moved first. Battery recycling may not be on par with steel recycling yet, but if that's the case, it's just a matter of time.

[@NinjaRunningWild]

Not to mention mining for battery rare materials. Usually done by diesel. Also, limited. Just kicking the can down the road.

[@andyherle]

Brilliant!

[@wildcat6669]

Captain: "were out of baterry ! were going down ! Start the recharge!"...24 hours later

[@blazen4209]

yes i love sitting at the window when i get the chance. will sub to this cool channel

[@Tigerbythetoe]

Great video! Really comprehensive and educational. It answered some questions and raised many more as future tech videos do. It’s disappointing that much of our eco friendly energy sources are not very eco friendly. Solar panels are made with materials that require some pretty nasty mining practices, the manufacture of the panels is pretty dirty too. There is a push for more companies to make that much cleaner. Then there’s the lifespan of those panels and as with all high tech stuff what to do with them when they’re shot. Currently much of our old Electronics are not recycled but end up in 3rd world landfills. The same goes for battery technology. A 1/2 million gallons of water are polluted in just mining the Lithium to make batteries, then there’s the pollution of air and water that comes during their manufacturing, not to mention the environmental impact of their disposal/recycling. Yikes. So far there is no such thing as a truly cradle to grave environmentally friendly green source of reliable energy. For the time being I want to see more efficient and cleaner uses of petroleum products, since I have yet to see a way we can stop their use completely. Where do plastics, a material that is used in virtually every product that you can possibly buy, come from? Seeing this video I put the future of all electric powered flight that is affordable, safe and at a scale large enough to make it comparable to what our current commercial aviation is doing kind of a long way off. This is why we need innovation and more minds to work on the challenges that electric powered flight presents. Right now we would be trading one polluting energy source for another which kinda defeats the purpose. The average Lithium battery lasts 300-500 cycles or 2-3 years of continuous use. I’m anxious to see how these challenges will be overcome.

[@chris532008]

if environment is in fact in danger because of humanity and causing us to possibly face extinction then a few things need be implimented immediately and hasn t because no such situation exist but we would then be compelled to eliminate air travel stop zoneing cities to increase travel needs stop expansive population growth eliminate all benefit to people to have children to include government schools, improve education as the only future fuel with less problems is fusion only through great education without all the social indoctrination is the possibility for the science to provide the solutions all directivers in past 50 years has been toward new world order totalarian government by a few thousand families to benefit themselves while enslaving all others

[@nathanr7931]

It would be nice if jets stopped spraying chemtrails.

[@diablo.the.cheater]

@@chris532008 The problem is that the damange to the enviorment is not something that has always inmediate repercusions, like we could hurt the enviorment past the point of no return and still survive another 200 years.

[@chris532008]

@@diablo.the.cheater and yet if man is the problem than how can one explain that everything the new world order executes is the expansion of humanity increasing polution and its wars destroying property that need then b rebuilt so they profit unfairly

[@GoCoyote]

Electrician in the power industry here. You are quoting the cycle life of older lithium batteries of the type used in cell phones and laptop computers, not EVs or electric aircraft. The type used in EVs and aircraft have a cycle life around 1200 cycles to 2000 cycles, and some EVs have lithium iron batteries with 3000 to 4000 cycles. Even cell phone and laptop batteries are getting much better as more research and development is going into batteries overall. Solar panels are mostly made of glass, aluminum, and silicon, both very common in the earths crust, and of very low toxicity, and are highly recyclable. The rest of the modules are mostly copper, silver, and some plastics in the backing. The only thing that is problematic to recycle is the plastic backing. I personally have some solar modules from the 1990s that are still going strong, albeit at a lower output. New modules have a warrantee to produce at least 80% of their original power after 25 to 35 years, with some modules warrantied for 85% of original power output. But they still continue to produce usable power, and we are not really sure how long they will last. There are over 60 year old solar cells that are still producing power. Lithium batteries are very profitable to recycle, with primary recyclers currently making $750 dollars of profit per ton of recycled batteries. Not sure where you get the water pollution info on lithium mining, but the brine water extracted from lithium brine mines is already been "polluted" with lithium salts for thousands of years, and is not potable water. The lithium is evaporated off from the brine water, leaving behind the lithium.

[@zombieplant3048]

as a slovenian a am proud

[@little-wytch]

consider some of the wilder possibilities this could open up. The tiny living movement also spawned liveaboard sailboats, and some of those are even going to electric drives that can generate power when under sail. It also spawned van life and all the different power options mentioned here for that too. Now imagine one of those solar electric flying wings that is also designed to be a small apartment and amphibious. There's actually so many different ways it could go, maybe have wings that can fold back so it can be driven on the highway like a pickup truck towing a camper? However you want to design it, Flying life might become the new thing. Could even have a smart cockpit that would be a traditional cockpit for backup, but a smarter auto-pilot and with things like heads up AR displays to show various air-spaces and info about them, like what channel to contact that ATC for. Doing that might even make flying safer and make getting a licence easier. And how much more efficiant will something like starlink be when you're up at crusing altitude?

[@pierredes4415]

I love the fact that the caption "Batteries are affected by the low temperatures at" 4:49 and the next slide that dissapears immediately are not mentioned by the speaker 🤣

[@ct1762]

yea im sure battery efficiency will increase in -120f temperatures lol! these people are delusional!