587
First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
187 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Now that you mention it, they specify a maximum total weight of 25,000 lbs, so at 100% efficiency it would take 339MJ of energy to lift the fully loaded plane to 10,000 ft. That can be converted as 94 kWh, and at the current cheapest electricity price in the US of $0.1235/kWh, that's $11.63

Therefore, it is literally impossible for this plane to reach 10,000 ft for $5 fully loaded.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    price in the US of $0.1235/kWh, that’s $11.63

    Way cheaper than I'd have guessed.

    737 at max takeoff weight is 175k lbs. So that's around $80 to get airborne. Seems like a steal when you're charging easily triple that for one seat.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago

    To be clear, this is the theoretical minimum amount of energy to lift a mass straight up. I'd be surprised if an airplane moving sideways would hit even 30% efficiency in comparison.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent