ColdFusion - Electric Planes Are Here!

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. Just 10 years ago, nobody would have ever thought electric vehicles would be in mass production, yet alone changed the auto industry. Today, most car manufacturers are thinking about all electric vehicles. Volvo is even saying that they may ditch diesel cars altogether and switch to hybrid and electric cars. What was once a pipe dream and impractical is now a reality in the auto industry. But now, in the latter part of the 2010,

Starting point is 00:00:37 the electric revolution is taking to the skies. Battery tech is just getting good enough to allow several companies to roll out their fully electric aircraft into production. In this quick video, we'll take a look at the state-of-the-art of fixed-wing electric aircraft. Earlier this year, the German firm Simmons just demonstrated a powerful electric aircraft that broke two world records. The first was a speed record. It was the fastest electric aircraft flying at a straight-line speed of 340 kilometers an hour. It also broke a climbing record rising from the ground to 3 kilometres in just over 4 minutes. It was also the first electric aircraft to Airtow. The aircraft, an extra 330 LE, was able to do this thanks to a new generation of electric motors from Simmons. Weighing just 50 kilograms, the motor can produce 260 kilowatts,

Starting point is 00:01:27 about five times the power of comparable aircraft engines, or about as much output as the original Tesla Model S. Simmons plans to use this aircraft as a test bed for developing more in the future. Another company, Pippostril, from Slovenia, is getting ready to ship their fully electric light aircraft, the Alpha Electro. The Alpha Electro will be used for flight training purposes and takes 45 minutes to fully charge. The aircraft cuts overall costs of flight training by 70% from fuel savings, and the learning process is exactly the same as its petrol counterparts. Interestingly, every 10th of a second, the system on the aircrafts,

Starting point is 00:02:05 aircraft checks the batteries monitoring their voltage and looking out for any faults. It can electronically disconnect parts of the battery if the system predicts a fault. Upon landing, the propeller turns into a generator, recharging about 5% of the battery. Yet another company, Aeroelectric, is launching another all-electric plane called the Sunflyer. It has the same idea of reducing the cost of flight training. This is really a history-making event. Arrow Electric Aircraft Corporation has just unveiled a prototype of its new all-eastern. electric sunflyer plane, which could open up the skies to many more pilots.

Starting point is 00:02:42 By using electricity, they claim that the price goes down from $45 per flight hour down to $1 per flight hour, a real quantum leap. I think this use case makes the most sense for all electric air travel, small planes, one to two passengers and short trips from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. It would be good for scenic aerial tours, short charter flights, or pilot training. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of electric propulsion? Well the advantages are as follows. It's quieter, mechanically more efficient and doesn't have any direct emissions.

Starting point is 00:03:17 The disadvantages is the battery. The bottleneck really is with the battery energy density. It's just not good enough yet for long distance flight. In addition to this, with traditional aircraft, the more fuel you burn the lighter the craft gets. But with electric aircraft, the batteries are essentially dead weight. But this is where hybrid systems come into play. More so than cars, hybrid planes seem to be the sweet spot for air travel.

Starting point is 00:03:41 They can be used for medium distances flying for about two to four hours. Airbus is working on a hybrid plane to go into production by 2030. This comes after successfully testing their own fully electric aircraft, dubbed the E-FAN, a project that ran from 2014 to last month. During its testing, the E-Fan was claimed to be the first electric plane to cross the English Channel. With help from Simmons, both Pippistral and Airbus are in the works of creating hybrid motors. But the hybrid motor from Pippistral is already in testing phases and makes about 200 kilowatts. So in conclusion, electric aircraft have been in the experimental stages for many

Starting point is 00:04:19 decades, but were woefully underpowered and largely had the same issues as electric cars before Tesla got the ball rolling. Now, practical electric aircraft are right around the corner. In the next year or two, they'll be fully in service, but only for short-range, low-passenger volume situations. But it seems like hybrids aren't fire off, and this could open the door to low emission mid-range flights with the benefits of both an electric motor and traditional power. And with that, that wraps up the video. This was just a quick look at the state of the art of electric fixed-wing aircraft. Thanks for watching. This has been DeGurgo. You've been watching Cold Fusion. If you just stumbled across this channel, feel free to subscribe. And I'll catch you again

Starting point is 00:04:57 soon for the next video. Cheers, guys. Have a good one.

ColdFusion - Electric Planes Are Here!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.