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Comment by tylermauthe | Hacker News Reader

The arguments presented here are logically sound and I agree that we won't be replacing a Boeing 747 with electrical. I also agree there are a lot of companies (not just electric planes) fleecing investors for money for products they have no idea whether or not they can build but claiming they absolutely can; but taking risk is baked into the idea of investing and is why profit is justifiable for investors so I think this is a moot point.

That being said, I absolutely think we will see EV planes in short haul -- and short haul flights are a HUGE source of emissions. This is good.

Here's a link -- local seaplane company is moving it's fleet to EV planes and has been flying test flights for almost a year: https://www.harbourair.com/harbour-air-magnix-and-h55-partne...

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Electric on short haul flights really doesn't make sense to me either in most real-world scenarios given the energy densities possible from current batteries. Although you may be able to pull off the flights themselves without any issues, you will be unable to use the plane continuously because of the time you will need between flights to recharge. Of course, in scenarios where the plane is in use for only a small fraction of the time, this isn't a problem, but that does not apply to most commercial situations

The most realistic way to attain "green" flights seems to me to be some variant of a high energy density fuel such as hydogen produced from green electricity... so-called "green hydrogen". This also solves the range limitations of batteries, besides charging time. There are however significant problems with using hydrogen too, as other comments in this thread point out.

Airplane engines are really expensive. If the electric plane is significantly cheaper, it could be beneficial to eat the lower utilization. Also bigger batteries don't necessarily charge slower. If you have more cells, you can force more power into the batteries. The charging cable will be massive, but that might be acceptable.

well... when they start doing all their flights on electric engines in 2022 I guess we'll see if it makes sense... did you read my link?

> you will be unable to use the plane continuously because of the time you will need between flights to recharge

Couldn’t a battery be swapped so that the plane wouldn’t have to wait? (I’m sure it’s tricky, but that seems like the clear solution to charging taking along time.)

The batteries would then need to be more easily accessible and a more standard shape. You probably couldn't have batteries in the wings.

I would imagine commercial planes would take a hybrid approach. They would have their own primary batteries hidden throughout the plane, and then they would have range extender swappable batteries in the cargo area.

A number of years ago I read, I believe on this very site, that, in general, the main product of many of today's tech startups is no longer the product itself, but the idea of that product, and their customers are not the people who buy the actual product, but investors. And I think it's fair to say that investors are often easily affected by hype.

It's probably a bit dismissive of the passion of many founders[0], but I have found it a useful perspective in many cases.

[0] Honourable mention goes to the CEO of the ten-person company I work for. He really does believe in this ish.

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