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Comment by andrewgodwin | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately, at their stated range of 160nm, you're looking at only getting as far as Big Sur before the entire craft needs a recharge - it's much more aimed at island and port hopping, I suspect, than long distance travel.

Still, I am excited to see ground-effect vehicles/ekranoplans back in vogue!

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With today's tech you're spot on. As batteries advance though, we expect ranges closer to 500 miles by the end of the decade, which would indeed enable SF<>LA!

Assuming battery tech advances, how long would you expect SF<>LA trip to take?

3x increase in battery capacity in the next 7 years seems rather optimistic to me. Are there any specific battery advancements in the development pipeline that you know of?

How are you managing battery degradation, especially given that you're planning for high charge rates with quick turnaround? Do you have an idea of how many pack replacements you'll need over the lifetime of the rest of the aircraft?

IIRC, a lot of the energy use in a plane flight is due to the initial acceleration. So double the capacity is more than double the distance. You can also just use a bigger battery when the weight efficiency is better.

Amprius is planning to offer a silicon nanowire anode sometime in the next decade it seems, which probably won't double the capacity, but it would be a significant improvement.

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