[michaelt]

> Electric flight for commercial passenger service will never happen at commercial passenger scale.

I've heard it argued [1] that once we have proper carbon taxes, we'll see commercial electric flights on sub-250-mile routes like Denver to Aspen.

I agree that we're nowhere close to electric transatlantic flights, of course.

[1] https://youtu.be/aH4b3sAs-l8?t=456

[dmitrygr]

We are nowhere near the battery tech to make this happen. That distance is 108nm, throw in the IFR departure/arrival, a hold due to sequencing, a missed approach due to weather, and we're looking at 180nm flown. Add in the flight time to the alternate airport, and the legally-required reserves, and we're looking at a required range of maybe 260nm. Do not forget that lithium batteries SUCK in the cold, so you'll also waste some power on heating them. We have no batteries right now that will take 100 people 260nm on a plane. We only have toy demonstrators that, with careful tuning, can take one or two people almost about that far.

[AKSucks]

I completely forgot about how immensely challenging it would be to keep the battery packs (and passengers) warm enough at the altitudes jetliners operate. Good point.