Electric Planes – the Future of Air Travel? Don’t Drain the Batteries when You Plug In Your Laptop

Back in April, we talked about the advantages (and some challenges) of High-Speed Rail. How to compete with driving on short trips? How to not take forever to get to the West Coast from Chicago? (Riding High-Speed Rail or Shooting through a Hyperloop Tube). Hyperloop may be the answer.

High-Speed Rail and Hyperloop both have a distinct advantage over the competing travel modes—they can be continually connected to a power source for electricity. Cars need to carry batteries and airplanes—well, we’re coming to that.

We followed that up in May with a bit on sub-orbital rocket transportation (Breakfast in New York – Lunch in Singapore – Dinner in London). You get there fast, but electric? I don’t think anybody’s looking at an electric rocket—they’d never get off the ground. They might work in space, and I’ll look at that topic in the future (Mars in six weeks? Maybe.), but not for high-speed rocket travel on Earth.

Finally, even with hyperloop speeding us along at 750 mph, what happens when we have to cross an ocean? When I checked, there was scant information on intercontinental hyperloops. So it looks like for now, airliners will still need to get us there.

And that brings us to the question of electric airplanes. Believe it or not, they are being worked on, and a few prototypes and early models are flying. Airbus has flown a testbed where one engine was replaced with an electric turbofan. The experimental craft is known as the E Fan-X. Not a bad name for an experimental aircraft.

NASA is also working on experimental electric aircraft with the X-57 Maxwell. They’re conducting a series of phase tests that will look at the various systems required for electric flight – power, motors, airframe, and avionics.

For now, electric intercontinental airliners are not likely to be showing up at your local airport. But, one thing I’m betting on, though, is somebody, somewhere, is going to build one. Imagine no pollution, quiet engine noises, and probably very cool designs.

So keep your eyes on the skies. They’re coming.