What's up with electric aviation?
www.volts.wtf
CEO Kyle Clark of BETA Technologies walks us through the details of how to design, build, and operate electric planes — first for relatively short light-cargo flights, but eventually, he says, for all of aviation. I loved this conversation so much.

Electric vehicles that can take off and land vertically, but then fly like a plane, are already being sold and used by hospitals and shipping companies. These vehicles have 5 batteries that give it a range of over 350 miles using current battery technology, though the batteries are intended to be swapped over the life of the aircraft, much like the engine of a traditional aircraft, however, future batteries could feature improvements, meaning the vehicle gets better over time. The redundancy that Electric motors allow more easily than mechanical motors means this aircraft is far safer than anything else in the air.

  • Rentlar
    6•6 months ago

    Flying a VTOL aircraft seems out of reach for me as most are either helicopters or military, but an EVTOL seems like something that could be in reach for me within my lifetime.

    • DippyOP
      2•6 months ago

      Yeah the guy was saying the learning curve is very approachable for those with the right qualifications.

    • @abbadon420@lemm.ee
      2•6 months ago

      I think the cats, hedgehogs, squirels and otger frequent roadkill victims will be very happy if massively we start using flying electric cars

      • @megopie@beehaw.org
        11•6 months ago

        Flying cars exist, you just need a pilot license to operate one, that is not something that will go away any time soon, and for good reason.

        Everyone driving at 60MPH in 2D is dangerous enough as it is, 160MPH in 3D is way more dangerous. It’s not an issue of technology, it is an issue of the fundamental impracticality of the concept.

        • Sonori
          4•6 months ago

          But we could have an average of 684 9/11’s a hour, the actual number of car crashes per hour in the US, driven purely by the piloting skills of the average Amarican driver given command of an aircraft, who wouldn’t want to live in that future?

      • @jonne@infosec.pub
        6•6 months ago

        If you replaced every vehicle with an electric airplane the electricity needed would be astronomical.