[D_Alex]

I am really quite confident that no serious development of electric passenger aircraft will take place during the coming decade.

And it is not a question of feasibility, but rather of priorities. There is so much low hanging fruit to be collected! By the end of the decade, if all goes well, we will be in the middle of replacing petroleum fuelled cars and busses with electric ones, and maybe turning our attention to other land-based petroleum consumers such as trucks, agricultural equipment, mining machinery etc.

Airplanes are so far down the list of things we can easily swap over to batteries that it is not yet worthwhile to work in this field.

[Entangled]

Siemens disagree

http://www.siemens.com/press/electric-aircraft

[jpm_sd]

They specifically mention "hybrid-electric propulsion systems", which means electric propulsion powered from a fuel-burning generator.

[gambiting]

On the other hand, the majority of the cost of almost any flight is the fuel. Electricity won't be free, but should be considerably less than tonnes of kerosene(I'd love to hear how much less exactly) - which means that obviously airlines can pocket the difference as profit, and they do love that. There's already loads of short connections in EU, so an aircraft like that should be hugely attractive.

[ams6110]

> airlines can pocket the difference as profit

Air travel is intensely competitive in most areas, and customers generally have very little "brand loyalty" and buy almost entirely based on price. The difference in expenses should result in lower fares.

And it is yet unknown whether the extra cost of flying tons of batteries around (they weigh the same when depleted, as opposed to jet fueled aircraft which become lighter as they use up fuel), and the extra cost of those batteries, and maintenance/replacement of them, will net out to be significantly cheaper than using conventional jet fuel.

[woodandsteel]

I could be wrong, but I am guessing that batteries + electric motors will be both cheaper and need a lot less maintenance than jet engines plus fuel tanks and pumps.

[elmar]

Personally I think the development will be on 1 to 4 places fully electric aircraft and maybe 4-30 places hybrid.

[pilom]

Airplanes really don't get the same benefits cars do from being hybrids. Hybrid cars take advantage of the fact that cars have to change speeds often and electric motors are somewhat effective at recovering energy when the car needs to slow down. Planes don't have that issue. The engine in a plane generally sits at the same throttle point for >80% of the flight.

[cprayingmantis]

I agree, I've been thinking about it for years but I really want automated electric farm equipment. Torque and weight wise it all works out.