Siemens Electric Airplane Flies Us Toward the Future

Fully Charged is an interesting show but the more I watched it I found it draining how Robert Llewellyn would put down all non-electric vehicles on every episode; almost every breath. I agree electric vehicles are great but even jokingly complaining about gas engines all the time gets annoying pretty quick.

I've been flying electric powered high performance model airplanes (mostly F5B class) for decades. I'd like to think the electric r/c flight industry has been trenching this territory for quite some time. With the next 2x improvement in battery energy density cars and possibly full scale planes are going to make a huge leap forward.

Here's a video of F5B class R/C planes. It's hard to convey just how insanely fast these things are. Huge power to weight ratio and very aerodynamically efficient.

You can hear the crowd gasping at the performance they see. Also note that the motor is only turned on for a second or less at at time. If the motor were on longer these planes would reach 1,500 feet in 5 to 10 seconds tops.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0z9iy2SJA0

Exactly, sure the motor is super light. Great. What happens when you put enough batteries in the airplane for a ~2 hour flight? Just assume that at cruise it's only using 1/2 of the rated power. OK, now where do we find a 260kWh battery pack light and small enough to fit in the plane? That's a full 3x of Tesla Model S battery packs.

Unless we have high density super batteries electric vehicles will become a fad.

Try standing next to one even at low rpm. Rotor noise becomes a factor at high rpm, but then the engine still is noisy itself. As a private pilot, small-aircraft engines are noisy as f... Among the reasons: No development at all for about two decades when the small-aircraft market was down (which is why you see so many built decades ago, then a big gap, and only in the late 1990s new developments started to come to market). Other reason, but it's part of the first one (due to the costs involved): being conservative. If you only have one engine and you have a very reliable one, that's what you keep using. Especially when the costs of developing something new and getting it approved - and you have to repeat that in different regions with different government agencies - are very high.

It is true though, when a propeller airplane flies overhead you get significantly more noise when it is directly perpendicular, when you get the most noise from the propellers.

Jet engines had a significant positive development in this area. On the small Livermore (CA) airport I had the chance to compare two small jets, an old one and a new one. The old one made me cover my ears. The new one - less noise than a Cessna, quite amazing.

In this context, an anecdote, but about noise on the inside: I always thought sitting in a glider would be quiet. It is - if you keep the little window shut. But then the cabin heats up too much (at least flying in California). I was very disappointed about my 1 hour in a glider.

On the other hand, sitting inside a small airplane the noise from the engine is significant and a big reason why you really want that active noise-cancelling headset.

I can relate to this pilot (except that if he had used a good headset he could have had it much easier): http://www.askthepilot.com/small-plane-misery/

Tip: When flying in a small piston-powered airplane, always bring a good isolating headset, or ear plugs (or even both!). The movies are lying, those cockpits are as noisy as... I can't think of an equivalent, but it's on an "industrial level". Noise is a major stress factor in small aircraft aviation, as you could see from that pilot's article.

According to this[1] it's a 350HP electric motor.

[1]: https://youtu.be/T_9-V73nT1k