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A comment on Electric Planes Usher in the Second Great Age of Aviation. Parent comment

Re:Electric Planes Usher in the Second Great Age of Aviation by coryrc on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @11:33AM (#9962268)
Except, electricity will be about 85-90% efficient and a turbofan is about 30% efficient [1], roughly tripling the cost advantage.

Fuel costs are about 35%[1] of operating costs, so only a ~20% cost reduction is possible for fuel change, so your point is still mostly valid.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_engine#Energy_efficiency

[2] http://www.ajc.com/news/business/airlines-keep-adapting-to-h...

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Re:Electric Planes Usher in the Second Great Age of Aviation by masklinn on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @11:46AM (#9962366)
> Except, electricity will be about 85-90% efficient and a turbofan is about 30% efficient [1], roughly tripling the cost advantage.

But then batteries store 1% the energy per mass fuel does so even assuming triple the efficiency, the energy storage is 30 times easier (assuming everything else stays constant which it can't because now your craft is an order of magnitude heavier and your short-haul plane is as heavy as a 747)

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Re:Electric Planes Usher in the Second Great Age of Aviation by srb- on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @02:08PM (#9963414)
Ah, thanks for putting some numbers out there everyone. Very interesting. That's why I love HN.

Musk has said several times that if he wasn't working on space and EVs, he'd be working on hyperloop or electric planes. Wonder what potential he sees in the latter.

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Re:Electric Planes Usher in the Second Great Age of Aviation by csours on Tuesday July 28, 2015 @11:47AM (#9962376)
Except, you will be carrying more weight, due to the weight of the battery.
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