On 2/7/21 12:46 PM, David Scott wrote:

The biggest problem to an electric propulsion system is the batteries, and those are going to get vast improvements in the near future.

That's a big red flag. I hope you're not doing this project assuming
the batteries are going to be a lot better. Lithium batteries have been
commercially available for about 20 years, and the annual compounded
rate of improvement in energy density is not that impressive. It's been
claimed that batteries are somehow subject to Moore's Law, which is an
extremely incorrect assumption.

Still think you're underestimating the scope of the project. For
example, the Glasflugel folks are working on a self-launch retrofit for
Libelle's. Been at it for five years, been flying for three years, and
they're still not ready to announce pricing or availability. See story
at 7:50 he

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZNr2BIOXBw

Someone converted a Cessna Caravan to electric and put on a big demo
flight for the press. It suffered a partial inverter failure during
that flight, now has been converted back to turbo jet and is up for
sale. The good folks at GP Gliders are five years late in delivering
product, when they finally got one out the door last year, the motor
lasted 10 minutes before something burned out. You'd think electric
systems would be so reliable, but there's tons of things that can go wrong.

The Antares was one of the first on the market, never really lived up to
its promised performance. On a hot day, the motor can overheat after a
thousand foot climb, batteries didn't deliver the capacity or lifetime
they were supposed to. Mr. Nadler may someday enlighten us with a few
more of its weak points.

Dave