Long time readers know I’ve explored the topic of electric airplanes, but not in a while, so this note in Quartz from the Paris Air Show caught my eye:
The world’s largest aerospace event, the Paris Air Show, was held this week. By the numbers, the electric airplanes on display were a sideshow. More than 400 fossil fuel-powered aircraft worth $15 billion were sold as airlines stocked up to serve the world’s burgeoning demand for air travel.
But it was Cape Air’s order of the first commercial electric airplanes that drew particular attention. The Israeli startup Eviation Aircraft took a “double-digit” number of orders for a $4 million electric plane dubbed Alice. The aircraft can fly 650 miles (1,046 km) at around 500 miles per hour (805 km/h) with three electric motors on the tail and one on each wingtip. The prototype carries a 900 kWh lithium-ion battery (about nine times bigger than Tesla’s largest automotive battery).
Note this line drawing of the airplane:
Not only is it a pusher propeller configuration, but there’s pushers out on the wing tips. Now isn’t that odd?
Maybe it’s common, I don’t know. I wonder what that does for flight stability?
