FAA "dry" weight limit - incl removable battery?

[turboplanner]

Good point but comparing cars and planes in this manner is a bit apples and oranges ...Potentially there's an absolutely immense benefit to be gained from series hybrid application in aircraft. The big thing about planes is that we're forced to cart around a big engine the whole time when it's only actually needed for a tiny percentage of the time i.e. for the take-off and initial climb. The rest of the time it's an inefficient heavy-weight gas-guzzler operating well below its best torque.

I agree it's appples and oranges, but is there a light aircraft system in production now?

 

If not, I can't see the volume/profitability equation allowing an internal combustion hybrid to be developed because of cost, even if someone could resolve the additional weight and complexity issues.

 

The hybrid I can see though is the Solar/Electric combination, with that huge upper surface availability.

 

There's very little production development in this field either, but a pointer to what might be achieved here is the Darwin-Adelaide Solar Race.

 

This started with flat streamliner cars, most breaking new ground to achive the distance from Darwin to Adelaide at moderate speeds.

 

After a few years they were all making Adelaide with a few achieving bursts of 100 km/hr

 

Then the streamlines all had to be limited to the NT 130 km/hr speed limit which they were able to cruise at (and break)

 

Then the rules were changed requiring the drivers to sit upright in a conventional driving condition for more frontal area, and they still were able to cruise at 100 km/hr

 

So there's a lot of potential power available from the solar cells and circuitry those guys use, which powers electric motors.

 

Add batteries to that and you have a system with the redundancy we would need.

 

However, before getting too excited, take a look at the circuitry required; and then think about the development costs.

 

World Solar Challenge 2017

 

 

[Happyflyer]

Airbus considering 19-seat hybrid-electric aircraft for general aviation market