12 ms·
It may be too hard to do a good retrofit. If you basically have to tear the entire plane apart and rebuild and recertify it to put batteries in the right places
by MBCook 13d ago
It may be too hard to do a good retrofit. If you basically have to tear the entire plane apart and rebuild and recertify it to put batteries in the right places, maybe the costs aren’t worth it for potential customers.
I know many planes use their wings as fuel tanks but given the weight of batteries maybe that doesn’t work.
I agree it’s interesting. Not a small undertaking.
- 7952 13d agoGenerally all the weight of the fusaage has to go through the wings anyway so it is structurally more efficient to put weight on the wings in the first place.
- Barbing 13d agoAnd they do that with fuel?! Neat!
- dghlsakjg 13d agoYup. On a 737 they can put about 8k pounds per wing. Even little planes like Cessnas have wing tanks.
- Barbing 13d agoWow wow! Might see planes just a smidge differently now :)
- brucehoult 13d agoIn sailplanes we add up to around 200 litres of water to wing tanks in single-seat gliders (empty weight typically around 280kg) to improve the high speed performance (typically up to 270 km/h these days) and ability to fly comfortably in turbulence. It's surprising what you can fly formation with, even without an engine [1] :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0icOICQLTc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0icOICQLTc Dumping (most of the) water before landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Yv-V7eozk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Yv-V7eozk [1] this particular glider does have a small engine for takeoff, but maximum speed with the engine extended is 180 km/h and here they are flying at 280 km/h.
- Barbing 13d agoWhat a rabbithole this is now :D That glider next to the world's fastest aircraft (in 1953) dressed up for a fight, how about that. And they can water the grass... - So several thousand $ to get trained and certified and finally be ready to get towed and soar... but just a few hundred (California) to try for half an hour behind a pro in the cockpit--oh yeah! ...omg they let you fly the thing for another couple bucks!!!
- brucehoult 13d agoIf it's a pro then they'll be sitting in the back seat so you're in the front seat the same as you will be when you fly solo. Here's a video of me taking a student for their first lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZN21xzsRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZN21xzsRo That's in a DG1000, actually this exact one ZK-GGR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeueijUoL70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeueijUoL70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ShTUTiqlM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ShTUTiqlM And how that looks from the other end of the rope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxcJR-zipI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxcJR-zipI And from the door of the hangar (using the runway in the opposite direction). Turn it up! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUnXuMVhKfs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUnXuMVhKfs Coming back to more like the current topic, an electric powered glider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2gS9ENl5k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F2gS9ENl5k Also from Stefan's channel, some fun here in New Zealand ... this flight passes just a couple of km from the Lord of the Rings "Weathertop" site (Google maps knows it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggz2CzvPNUc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggz2CzvPNUc
- deleted 13d ago[deleted]