Re:Tesla reveals Supercharger network, Free Fill Ups
by stcredzero on Tuesday September 25, 2012 @01:44PM
(#4571608)
> Well, how are you going to make the airplanes fly? Battery. Batteries are pretty heavy.
You could get a huge win by offloading the power to ground stations and beaming it aboard. You'd still need some onboard power reserve for reliability and backup reasons, but you could offload most of it. This would let you lighten your airframe, which has a snowball effect, allowing even more lightening and more efficiency. Get the craft light enough, and VTOL becomes a possibility, meaning you could land these things on heliports downtown and not have a 1 hour trip to the airport.
Just think of it as "high speed rail" with lower infrastructure costs and fewer right-of-way problems.
You could get a huge win by offloading the power to ground stations and beaming it aboard. You'd still need some onboard power reserve for reliability and backup reasons, but you could offload most of it. This would let you lighten your airframe, which has a snowball effect, allowing even more lightening and more efficiency. Get the craft light enough, and VTOL becomes a possibility, meaning you could land these things on heliports downtown and not have a 1 hour trip to the airport.
Just think of it as "high speed rail" with lower infrastructure costs and fewer right-of-way problems.