Regional trips by hybrid plane?

The method of travelling a few hundred kilometres could soon transition from car to hybrid-electric plane.
A US-based company called Zunum Aero hopes to make that a reality.

It has some impressive backers, including Boeing HorizonX and JetBlue Technology Ventures, subsidiaries of their respective companies.

“To be perfectly honest, we’ve been wanting to tell the story for four years,” Zunum Aero chief executive Ashish Kumar told The Washington Post.

“What we’ve been building towards is really exciting and we believe fundamentally is going to change the shape of regional aviation.” Kumar says operating costs for the company’s hybrid-electric planes could be 40% to 80% lower than for conventional aircraft, meaning lower fares.

Eventually the goal would be for battery technology to get to the point where planes can rely entirely on electricity, eliminating fuel costs altogether, Kumar says.
A Zunum plane would have from 10 to 50 seats.

Zunum’s competition includes companies looking into helicopter-like electric “VTOL” (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft.

Companies like Uber, Airbus and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are reportedly looking into the technology.