Shower thought: Why is general aviation more expensive compared to other forms of transportation?
Thinking that electric planes need a 2 stage solution; take it waaay up and get it to speed, then split, glide the heavy batteries back on a robotic flying wing, and glide on a weight and drag optimized 2nd stage with enough power to land and maneuver. Good niche for fuel cells.
-
-
You're jiggling an old memory here... wasn't there, like, a military aircraft or something that used a ground-based accelerator (magnetic?) to get the thing aloft, then a modest on-board engine for traveling?
-
Yeah, but an untethered electric lifter definitely seems more practical. You can get way more altitude / speed I think. Power density is good with e-powertrains, so if you just ditch the extra mass after the high power requirements in lifting it could be a good niche for eplanes
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.