Energy storage in aircraft

How much energy does an aircraft battery need?

Viswanathan et al. confirm these figures by specifying that batteries of energy densities of 600 Wh/kg and 820 Wh/kg are required for commercial regional and narrow-body aircraft, respectively.

How much energy does an electric airplane need to take off?

However, the Uber-Elevate white paper published in 2016 cited that energy densities of 400 Wh/kg and above are required for electric aviation to take off fully. Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk also echoed that batteries with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg with a high cycle life could be realized within 3 to 4 years .

How can Electric Aviation reduce energy consumption?

In addition, it has been proven through research that efficient aerodynamic designs such as distributed propulsion and boundary layer injection which are much more practical with electric aviation can reduce the overall energy consumption during flight by a factor of 3 to 5 .

How many km can a 70-passenger aircraft fly with a battery?

Using range limitation and aircraft performance as a function of battery technology, the authors achieved a 70-passenger aircraft with a design range of 1528 km using batteries with an energy density of 1000 Wh/kg.

Can batteries be used in aviation?

Research in battery technology is advancing rapidly, mainly due to the growing popularity of electric vehicles . The successful application of batteries in powering aviation has been demonstrated by the trainers Pipistrel's Velis Electro and Bye Aerospace's eFlyers with batteries with specific energy densities between 250 and 270 Wh/kg .

What is the energy density threshold for electric aircraft?

For this reason, NASA proposes that the threshold of energy densities of batteries to enable the full implementation of electric aircraft for general aviation and regional aircraft are 400 Wh/kg and 750 Wh/kg, respectively .