A lot of attention is being paid to electric cars and no wonder, they seem to be the future of the automotive industry. If we can perfect a way to charge electric cars in a couple of minutes then they will be superior for many different reasons to gasoline powered cars, but this is not what this article is about. While all this attention is being given to electric cars many of us are missing the fact electrically powered airplanes are also being developed. They started off with solar power when an incredibly light airframe powered by solar cells took off. It was an ungainly looking plane, because it had huge wings covered with solar cells and was extremely light. This plane proving electric planes could fly was more of a concept than anything else. Today NASA has the X-57 electric research plane which is more sophisticated. It has fourteen electric motors turning fourteen propellers. NASA believes electronic propulsion will make planes quieter, more efficient and even environmentally more friendly. One of the things NASA believes about electronic airplanes is if they can distribute the electronic power across a number of motors they can reduce the energy required for a plane to fly at 175 mph by a factor of five. They also believe this will reduce the operational costs of the plane.

It seems there are a lot of planes which would be more efficient if they had electrical power instead of petroleum fuel. I think many planes with a propeller might lend themselves to improvement by being switched over to electrical power. What is needed here is an ultralight battery with a long life and easy charging abilities. Planes are more sensitive to weight than cars are, so even though one car with a large battery might be fine, that same battery might be too heavy to put into an airplane. It is only a matter of time before we are able to develop a sufficiently light and powerful power source and once this happens it is going to change a lot of things. A NASA scientist said as airplane companies look to reduce emissions and noise, some of the aircraft will no doubt be switched over to electric and when this happens they will be easier to maintain. NASA is developing a test bed system for electronically powered airplanes. The purpose of it will be to test the power systems for large passenger aircraft with over 20 Megawatts of power.

In 2016 history was made when the first solar powered airplane completed its flight around the world. The plane is called the Solar Impulse 2. The plane landed at Al Bateen Airport in Abu Dhabi. It wasn’t exactly a fast trip since it took sixteen months to complete its flight around the world. Two Swiss pilots flew the plane. Apparently they were dedicated to the fact electric power might be the future of aviation. Even though the plane was solar powered it was able to fly at nighttime. I assume it must have had batteries which were charged during the daytime with excess electrical power and then used them for power at night. One has to wonder if we will ever be able to invent an electrically powered jet engine. At the present time it seems electric power is more suited to slower types of flight.

There are two early solar powered airplanes built by NASA. One was the Pathfinder and the next the Pathfinder Plus. These planes concentrated on using solar cells as a power source and were unmanned. They were developed under NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sense Technology program, also known as ERAST. The idea was to get an airplane of this type at a high altitude and allow these planes to act in the same way as satellites do. This way they could be used as communications platforms and conduct research among other things. As development continued the Centurion was created. It was the third generation in this project. As with most NASA aircraft it started out as a model. The fourth generation of aircraft under this program was the Helios. It was a combination of solar and fuel cells. NASA had taken the Centurion and added 41 foot wings and a fifth landing gear along with a system’s part to create the Helios.

A company called Wright Electric is working with another company called EasyJet. They want to develop electronically powered aircraft which are similar to a 737. The plane would be used for short-haul flights. They believe it will be very quiet. The cofounder of Wright Electric stated, “the way we’ve designed our plane is to have modular battery packs for quick swap using the same cargo container that’s in a regular airplane. We want it to be as fast as possible, so airlines can keep their planes in the air as long as possible and cover their costs.” They also believe switching to electric will make flights much cheaper. The first plane they are developing is a hybrid and will seat nine people. It will be able to fly 300 miles and the company hopes they will be able to get it on the market before the end of 2017.

It looks like electronically powered planes are headed for our skies and they seem to be well on their way. As with anything else however, something better could come along. You just never know, because technology is moving so fast. For now it seems electric planes could gain a monopoly on short flights and in light aircraft.