Re:Ultralight lithium-sulfur batteries for electric airplanes
by mikeyouse on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @04:50PM
(#24216241)
Right -- you could use the full length of an existing runway to have a gentle acceleration , bt I'd argue this makes a lot more sense than some sort of drone delivered jettisoned/retrieved battery if your goal is to reduce on-board energy expended for takeoff. Much less complex and the wear parts would be fixed at the airport rather than on every single airplane.
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Re:Ultralight lithium-sulfur batteries for electric airplanes
by microcolonel on Wednesday August 19, 2020 @08:42PM
(#24218643)
> I'd argue this makes a lot more sense than some sort of drone delivered jettisoned/retrieved battery..
Oh absolutely, it compares favourably to one of the most asinine first-pass approaches to this problem I've ever seen, heheh.
The real solution is to find a way to produce good liquid fuel from a cheap and abundant source of overprovisioned baseline power (maybe make hydrogen† from your nuclear power in off-peak hours).
Batteries are mostly composed of matrix, so even if you could extract energy as efficiently from the non-matrix materials in the battery as you can from hydrocarbon combustion, you would still be lugging around all that matrix.
† Yes, I get that it's 3 times less energy dense than good hydrocarbons, but it's a start when compared to batteries.