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Topic: the future of electric aviation (Read 331 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: the future of electric aviation

Reply #1 –
Wikipedia:
"The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American military tiltrotor aircraft whose history of accidents have provoked concerns about its safety. "
"As of November 2023, 16 V-22 Ospreys have been damaged beyond repair in accidents that have killed a total of 62 people."

I doubt the kind of mass market usage envisaged by Joby will happen, flying is too niche and when aircraft crash they have to fall somewhere, making use over urban areas contentious. You could already commute with a paramotor, they are quite cheap and lightly regulated, but few do. You can see the appeal of upscaling drone technology, although there are plenty of drone crash videos to watch!

At $11 per gallon according to this video synthetic fuel seems to be getting cheaper, and has better energy storage capability:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1BvVAWazIo

When there was a large shift from petrol to diesel, this was due to newer turbo diesels offering equivalent performance, better durability and more fuel economy. Small taxation changes made them even more economically attractive, and they went from being the minority choice to the majority. Whatever makes most sense in practical terms and actually works well at a given point will be what most people choose, and currently that isn't EV's even with large incentives and pressures, although they are great for some use cases.

Re: the future of electric aviation

Reply #2 –
I like ev cars.  I would be very happy if i could have a small one the size of a chevette.  Just enough to take a cat to the vet or go get groceries BUT i would want it priced at 10k or less with incentives.  I want a tool not a toy.  most cars in america ice and ev are tools dressed up as toys and they just waste resources. and are dangerous.

These ev planes haven't taken off.... not like joby wants.  There are some for small scale travel but the real problem, like with the joby, your batteries weigh a ton and offer miniscule performance.  But yeah, uber isn't profitable yet and so lets group them with an ev plane service that will burn cash too.  That for sure won't fail????!!!???
Cat Herders of Linux

Re: the future of electric aviation

Reply #3 –
Quote
your batteries weigh a ton and offer miniscule performance.
Yes basically.
I can see gliders (out of which the 2 person ones have already been electric for decades), work just fine if you put a lightweight supercap bank in them with enough energy stored for multiple high power takeoffs, and then they can glide on just solar power, this way you can make a glider fit 10 people for short distance flights. But for big planes, no way.
 

Re: the future of electric aviation

Reply #4 –
You should be able to pick up a used EV (or several!) for a lot less than that kind of money. The Toyota Prius is a hybrid but can run battery only for short journeys, later models had an increased range. But given the age of these, you might need to do something with the existing battery so budget for that. The Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe are newer and all-electric and still quite affordable used.

Like a lot of companies, Joby seems to be in the business of selling pie in the sky to investors. Regardless of whether the company or investors make any money, the company directors will still get paid.... :D  They will probably do some interesting r&d work along the way too, of course.