Tesla Electric powered RV

[Mike S]

OHHH keep going about how wonderful electric flight is......






OK, bit of sarcasm on my part, but folks need to be defining the mission first, just like any other discussion on what to build or how to equip it.

Electric flight may be fine for some limited uses------as it stands at this time. Who knows what the future will bring?

To be useful for many folks it needs to improve a lot. How far can you fly in a single day cross country compared to a gasoline powered aircraft? At the same speed and load?

Biggies for me are flight time, charge time, and availability of locations for getting charged. And cost.

[Lenny Iszak]

It's going to be a while until we get to travel in electric planes mostly because of charging infrastructure, but having a fun plane to do some aerobatics in is not that far off. Acro planes don't have a lot of fuel to begin with so flight times would be fairly easy to match with electric power. You also can't be doing that for 3 hours, 30 minutes is plenty.
It might be weird though to zip around pulling Gs without the engine noise.

[airguy]

I would make the argument that present technology eliminates airliners.

[andrewtac]

A glass of my favorite drink in, so I'll bite. I am a little familiar with battery and electric motor technology. Is it even possible for it to come close? IC engines from nearly the beginning were enough to work in airplanes, and they were very crude.
Can the technology possibly get there? There are limits to IC engines, I don't see efficiencies getting much better than what we have today. Range and turn around time are the two issues I see will be hard to solve for electric airplanes. I'd love to have a near silent airplane to go bend around for an hour, but I would never give up the range and turn around time of an IC engine.

[emsvitil]

I can see some sort of hybrid working.

Both powerplants for takeoff.

One of them for cruise. Which one depends on conditions.

[Shark]

Upside; No more lean of peak arguments, No carb ice, No fouled plugs, No leaky RV tanks, No more vapor lock. No more EarthX vs Odyssey debates. The list goes on and on.. If the RC plane world is any indication it’s hopefully coming soon

[wilddog]

Electric power for aerobatics might work at your home field. Blast off for a half hr aero flight. But what if you want to travel to a contest? Electric does work for sailplanes as a sustainer motor but you still need a tow if you want much power left for a potential return if lift fails.

[dreed]

I think something like a hybrid or hydrogen power makes more sense in a plane. Diesel hybrid could use Jet A, or hydrogen could still allow for similar infrastructure and the ability to quickly refuel.

[Plummit]

Originally Posted by Shark

Upside; No more lean of peak arguments, No carb ice, No fouled plugs, No leaky RV tanks, No more vapor lock. No more EarthX vs Odyssey debates.

Well.... It could have a leaky tank (battery), but no MMO discussion. What about the primer???

-Marc

[emsvitil]

Originally Posted by Shark

. No more EarthX vs Odyssey debates.

That depends on who is going to be making the batteries for the electric motor................