There is little question that carbon-based flight power is here to stay for quite some time, but that isn't really the point - which is that electric flight is nevertheless a growth industry, and there are some markets where electric flight can make a lot of sense. If all you need to do is go up and fly for 2 hours or so, then an electric plane is a viable contender for the investment - maybe we're not at the tipping point, but we are approaching it, technologically at least, a few knots at a time.

It is a worthwhile goal, though. If we can somehow harness the suns' energy to get us around the world instead of using the world itself (and thus screwing it up), then we move closer to the cusp of a more viable long-term civilization. At the moment, every cheap flight to somewhere on a jet plane costs the Earth a great deal of survival potential...