Flying with conventional aircraft has become discredited due to the drastic developments in the field of climate change. While alternative travel is preferred for the time being, the airline industry could also make the jump to a climate-friendly future. A concrete solution seems to be in sight for short journeys.
“Today, e-flying is where we were ten years ago with e-cars,” futurologist Morell Westermann made a bold comparison at Hanover Airport on Thursday. He organized a flight of a fully electric small plane through Germany.
350 kilometers with one stopover
The ultra-light ‘Elektra Trainer’ was the first electric aircraft to land at Lower Saxony’s largest airport on Wednesday evening. The development of e-aircraft is still in its infancy, says Westermann, who is a pilot himself, but in a few years business and leisure flights could already be climate neutral, he argued.
Technology has recently taken a big leap. For example, for a flight from Hessen to the North Sea island of Norderney (about 350 kilometres), the ‘Elektra Trainer’ only needed one stopover on Tuesday. Shorter business and private flights with electric propulsion will be possible in the late 2020s.
Aircraft also “particularly quiet”
Björn Nagel of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) explained that the “Elektra Trainer” shows how the performance of electric aircraft has increased in recent years. “Many of the typical routes of such sport aircraft can be flown climate-neutral if the batteries are charged with electricity generated from renewable sources,” says Nagel.
Aircraft with electric or hybrid propulsion are also particularly quiet. “However, this propulsion system is not transferable to large transport aircraft that travel long distances at high speed.” The batteries required for this are expected to be too heavy.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
