Report looks at Tesla e-aircraft

The latest Manned Electric Aircraft 2020-2030 report has been released by industry expert Peter Harrop.

Harrop says to expect seven times the air traffic in 2050, increasing greenhouse gas by four times unless something changes.

Harrop look at the Tesla aircraft in the report. He adds energy density of batteries and power density of motors must improve.

Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk says his Tesla will survive and prosper as if Tesla investors stop investing, then the Chinese will snap it up.

Musk says once batteries are capable of producing 400 Wh/kg, with a ratio of power cell to overall mass of between 0.7-0.8, a pure electric transcontinental aircraft then becomes ‘compelling.’

The most orders for a pure electric plane is the Bye Aerospace, a two-seater eFlyer two with 3.5 hours endurance, the four-seater eFlyer 4 has a 4.2 hours endurance.

The report says many key enabling technologies will support electric vehicles on land, water and air beyond the usual lightweighting and drag reduction.

“The interesting thing about an electric plane is that you want to go as high as possible, but you need a certain energy density in the battery pack, because you have to overcome gravitational potential energy,” Musk says.

“Once you’ve overcome gravitational potential energy and you’re at a high altitude, the energy you use in cruise is very low, and then you can recapture a large part of your gravitational potential energy on the way down. Indeed, several developers are already working on small pure-electric aircraft with rotating thrusters.”

Musk says electric cars, solar energy and stationary storage of energy are still important.