this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Havent read the article yet, but I recall reading that with modern battery architecture electric planes were physically impossible. Is this plane not using lithium ion, or was I mistaken? It wasnt an issue of the tech not being ready yet, moreso that lithium ion simply could not achieve an energy density to weight ratio that was needed.
Edit: the article does not say.
Second edit: how far off are we from either not having power storage or only minimal power storage and then we just beam energy to the plane?
Assuming $8 for energy, let’s say $0.12/kWh you’re looking at 64kWH. That’s like 1kWh/mi, which is pretty fucking bad. There’s no way they’re scaling this up, because the battery has to weigh at least 1 Ton. So to double the distance you’d need to initially add double the battery, but that’s equivalent of adding 8 fat fucking Americanos to the payload, there by reducing the distance you can travel.
Meanwhile a Cessna Jet gets like 27/mi per gallon. So 2.5 gallons of fuel gets the same travel distance, and that only weighs like 20lbs.
Also, haven’t looked lately, but last I remembered, jet fuel was like $11/gal.
$0.12/kWh is pretty cheap tbh.
I was making the maths with $0,40/kWh which is expensive but can be seen is some countries, and that gives around 20kWh/100km.
It is impressive that a plane does not consume more power than a car (based on false maths ofc)
Yeah now add more batteries to double the flight range. 8lbs per gallon is 16lbs, versus like 2,400lbs of battery. The inefficiency goes through the roof.