While reading my September 2021 issue of 'Air International' I see another case of "Here comes the latest generation of electric aircraft". I have no doubt that there will be applications where electric propulsion will be appropriate. However, I don't see IT reaching the heights that many pundits are forecasting today. Let me start with this statement: "There is no such thing as an electric powered aircraft or vehicle." I'm a retired engineer with 44 years in that industry. If you want to drive a vehicle at 100kph (61mph) on a road the energy required will be determined by things such as drag coefficient, rolling resistance, frontal area, etc. I would assume that similar criteria apply if you want to have an airplane fly at 1,000kph (610mph), i.e. no matter what the source of the energy is, the same amount is required. In the case of electric propulsion, batteries are the direct source but those batteries are charged by land-based power plants. Officials in California have stated that if one in ten vehicles were electric powered it would crash the power grid. What impact would the addition of electric powered aircraft have?
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