That was just a mistake, I know they are planning short range propeller planes.
My two points that got kind of mashed together are:
1) that the current jets run on kerosene and will run on synthetic e-kerosene in the near future but if you have to synthesize the fuel from scratch anyway then long chain alcohols or methane or whatever will also be on the menu as potential fuels to synthesise, and we can evaluate them on multiple dimensions (toxic, volatile, cheap) to see what's best.
2) Once you throw the old paradigm out, there's no reason to expect the same thing to appear but electric/carbon neutral. An EV doesn't have to ape ICE cars in every respect, even though that was the initial reference point. It can be both better in some dimensions and worse in others, like iPads vs laptops. The reboot allows for some (re-)exploration of the design space of the whole transport system as well as the individual vehicles. Smaller cargo boats and planes will probably make more sense for the reasons given around low maintenance and fuel costs as well as increased automation. We know sythetic e-fuel jets are technically possible, but will they make business sense compared with something new?
My two points that got kind of mashed together are:
1) that the current jets run on kerosene and will run on synthetic e-kerosene in the near future but if you have to synthesize the fuel from scratch anyway then long chain alcohols or methane or whatever will also be on the menu as potential fuels to synthesise, and we can evaluate them on multiple dimensions (toxic, volatile, cheap) to see what's best.
2) Once you throw the old paradigm out, there's no reason to expect the same thing to appear but electric/carbon neutral. An EV doesn't have to ape ICE cars in every respect, even though that was the initial reference point. It can be both better in some dimensions and worse in others, like iPads vs laptops. The reboot allows for some (re-)exploration of the design space of the whole transport system as well as the individual vehicles. Smaller cargo boats and planes will probably make more sense for the reasons given around low maintenance and fuel costs as well as increased automation. We know sythetic e-fuel jets are technically possible, but will they make business sense compared with something new?