ARE ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS PULLING OUT?

Last month NASA announced that it was abandoning its multipropellor electric X-57 Maxwell project as unflyable while Daher, Safran and Airbus whisked the cover off a multi-prop electric aircraft at the Paris airshow. They said it has flown 27 test hours. In addition Tecnam said the company was suspending work on its P-volt twin, an electric airliner based on the piston-powered P2012.

Is this the shakeout of electric projects, which is the natural way of things for new technologies? thought Tecnam's explanation was refreshing, "The proliferation of aircraft with 'new' batteries would lead to unrealistic mission profiles that would quickly degrade after a few weeks of operation, making the all-electric passenger aircraft a mere 'green transition flagship' rather than a real player in the decarbonisation of aviation." What Tecnam has indicated is that the battery capacity / health would limit the practical economics of the airplane that it would become nothing more than a greenwashed hangar queen. Perhaps what they did not say was that the project was worth the exploratory investment but not millions in real development. The money is better spent elsewhere.

In NASA's case, the X-57 Maxwell was intended to investigate efficiencies in using twelve electric power units to blow air across a high-aspect low-drag wing. The idea was that all of the motors would be used for take-off, then the propellers feathered for cruise flight. The energy source was to be batteries. NASA did not offer much detail on why they determined the project was unflyable, just that certain subsystems lacked maturity and would not be ready in the time allotted to finish the $87 million programme. That seems like plenty of cash spent on an experimental programme, but then NASA admitted it had significant cost overruns. The theoretical idea was higher cruise efficiency and exchange for the mechanical chaos of 12 engines. Perhaps the money was well spent on pure research and of course it is an X-plane.

I think what we are seeing is that conventional aircraft converted to electric propulsion are problematical at best, unlikely at worst. They are too heavy, too draggy and given current battery energy density, just will not have practical payload.