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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u201cEurope\u2019s largest flight-approved electric aircraft.\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 We believe that the market exists on the short routes. Stockholm-Visby, for example, or regionally in Norrland, says CEO and founder Anders Forslund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One advantage, according to Forslund, is that an electric motor has fewer moving parts than one powered by aviation fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou also save on repair costs,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the obstacle is \u2013 just like with electric cars \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics have said that batteries weighing 30 kilograms are needed to replace every kilogram of jet fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Battery manufacturing is often done in an environmentally unfriendly way, for example with energy from Chinese coal-fired power plants. \u201cWe should do it in Sweden instead,\u201d believes the Swedish Transport Association\u2019s aviation industry manager, Fredrik K\u00e4mpfe: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonas \u00c5kerman 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. \u201cEverything takes longer,\u201d he says.
When could electric aviation start to have an impact on the climate? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: svt.se<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Om fem \u00e5r ska det finnas ett certifierat och godk\u00e4nt eldrivet trafikflygplan med plats f\u00f6r 19 personer och en r\u00e4ckvidd p\u00e5 40 mil. Det \u00e4r vad en svensk tillverkare planerar f\u00f6r, och flygbranschen hoppas att elflygplan ska kunna ta \u00f6ver korta linjer inom Sverige eller till de n\u00e4rmaste nordiska grannst\u00e4derna. En tjeckisk tillverkare, Phoenix, har byggt ett l\u00e4tt elflygplan med […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel-report"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n