On Jun 24, 6:59 am, Scott wrote:
wrote:
In rec.aviation.piloting Andrew Sarangan wrote:

On Jun 21, 11:42 pm, Richard Riley wrote:

On Jun 16, 7:37 pm, Larry Dighera wrote:

How Beat The High Cost Of Fuel

The motor is powered by a 78 pound, custom-built lithium-ion polymer
battery with a power output of "5.6 kilowatt hours"; projected life is
300 to 500 full discharge cycles or more than 1,000 partial cycles.
The battery can be recharged in as little as two hours using a
220-volt charger (or six hours with a 110-volt charger). The cost for
a full recharge is 70 cents with the 110-volt charger. Fishman says
it's feasible to carry a small 110-volt charger as baggage on
cross-country flights.

1 horsepower = .75kw. So 5.6 kilowatt hours is only 7.51 horsepower
hours. Good enough for a short burst to get you to altitude and soar
the thermals, bu you aren't going anywhere cross country.

Compare it to a really inefficient 2 stroke, burning .6 lb/hp-hr.
Your battery is equal to .75 gallons of gas.

The technology is immature, but this is on the right track. When a
suitable battery is invented, there is no arguing that it will easily
replace small gasoline engines.

And when fustion reactors are invented they will replace coal and
fission plants.

And when anti-gravity is invented, it will replace airplanes.

And when...

And battery development is just
getting started, so things can only get better.

Batteries have been under development for well over a hundred years.

We have not invested
in batteries other than for portable electronics.

What do you think powered ALL the world's submerged submarines before
the Nautilus was launched in 1954?

What do you think powers the stuff in torpedoes and missiles and has
for about a half century, an extension cord?

Have you any idea what has powered telephone offices for over a
century?

Do you know what a UPS is and have you ever seen one the size of a
small house?

I am sure many in 1903 argued that a horse drawn carriage could go
much farther and safer than the Wright flyer.

In 1903 both the airplane and the car were new; it is now 105 years
later.

I think his point was that the "standard" lead acid battery has been
around in its basic form and pretty much unchanged for many years. If
that is, in fact, what he means, I agree. Newer technologies have
really only appeared in the last 20-30 years, ie NiCd, NiMh, Lithium
Ion, etc. If we had been working to make "better" batteries as we have
with planes, trains and automobiles, we'd have some pretty sweet
electric power now...just my opinion.

Scott

You can add fuel cells to that list too, as a recent development. But
I am sure one could claim that fuel cells are in the Smithsonian
museum as a century-old technology.

My opinion is that the current oil prices is not a crisis, but a
necessary condition to refocus our technology. No one took electric
powered automobiles seriously when oil was less than $60.

Any transformative technology is not going to happen in a couple of
years. I think 2050 is still very optimistic for fusion power, but
that is still worth investing in. We can't always be thinking of
ourselves and screw the rest after we die. We owe it to our
children.