Electricity in the air: Battery plane flies with zero pollution

Sydney, January 17: As the world prepares for an all-electric vehicle (EV) future and numerous countries plan to do away with combustion-engine cars, it comes as no surprise that the next EVs are airplanes. The recent test flights of a single-engine electric plane in Australia are an example of this transition.

This plane runs on two lithium-ion batteries, like those in Tesla’s EVs that can keep it in the air for an hour with some 30 minutes of extra power in reserve. The batteries can supposedly give the plane 1,000 flying hours in total over their lifetimes. Flying electric is considerably cleaner than using fossil fuels. That’s especially crucial in today’s fight against climate change, as the aviation industry is said to be among the largest contributors in carbon emissions, from the more than 20,000 planes used all over the world.

Not so with this electric plane, which is also cheaper to fly compared to aircraft that use jet fuel? To run the Alpha Electro’s engine, for example, costs only about $3 an hour. The plane efficiently uses electricity, needing only 60 kilowatts of power to take off and only 20kW to cruise, where it glides almost as silently as an electric car.