In five years, there will be a certified and approved electric commercial aircraft with space for 19 people and a range of 400 kilometers. That is what a Swedish manufacturer is planning for, and the aviation industry hopes that electric aircraft will be able to take over short routes within Sweden or to the nearest Nordic neighboring cities.
A Czech manufacturer, Phoenix, has built a light electric aircraft with room for a pilot and a passenger. We take a few laps in the air around Bromma Airport in Stockholm. The plane is small and cramped on board, but according to the pilot, it is still “Europe’s largest flight-approved electric aircraft.”.
– With full batteries I can reach 200 km and then I have a large reserve left. In the USA we have been able to reach almost 500 km as far as possible, says pilot Martin Stepanek from the Czech Republic.
Short routes
The Swedish company Hart Aerospace plans to have a certified aircraft powered by electricity in five years that can fly 19 people a distance of 400 km.
– We believe that the market exists on the short routes. Stockholm-Visby, for example, or regionally in Norrland, says CEO and founder Anders Forslund.
One advantage, according to Forslund, is that an electric motor has fewer moving parts than one powered by aviation fuel.
“You also save on repair costs,” he says.
But the obstacle is – just like with electric cars – the capacity of the batteries. The small Czech plane has batteries in the nose and in the wings. Lithium-ion batteries, just like in an electric car.
”Not the solution for the Thailand trip”
Critics have said that batteries weighing 30 kilograms are needed to replace every kilogram of jet fuel.
– Yes, but efficiency increases. Regular planes today fly from Europe to Australia. Those are not the trips we are going to replace. Electric flying is not the solution for your trip to Thailand, but a flight within Sweden is short and then it doesn't matter that the batteries are heavier, says Forslund.
Battery manufacturing is often done in an environmentally unfriendly way, for example with energy from Chinese coal-fired power plants. “We should do it in Sweden instead,” believes the Swedish Transport Association’s aviation industry manager, Fredrik Kämpfe:
– Development is going fast now. Internationally, aviation research has started to look at this as an essential part of the future of aviation. If we control production ourselves, we will get the conditions we want, he says.
Unlikely but possible
Jonas Åkerman is a transport researcher at KTH in Stockholm and believes that plans for an electric plane for 19 people in five years are unlikely but not impossible. “Everything takes longer,” he says.
When could electric aviation start to have an impact on the climate?
– If we could electrify Swedish domestic aviation, the climate impact would be reduced by about 7%. Reaching a 10% reduction could probably happen a little after 2050, he says.
Source: svt.se
