Comments on: Elektra One Electric Plane + Solar Panels

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:57:00 +0000

Woops, sorry, thanks!

By: Th0th

Th0th — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 09:08:00 +0000

typo correction in Headline.. [Elekra] should be Elektra

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 02:51:00 +0000

If we got rid of the pilot and perhaps added some more solar cells it could make deliveries to remote areas, or drop emergency supplies.

By: anderlan

anderlan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:12:00 +0000

This is the first I’ve seen of this craft. Fantastic news! But I’m really skeptical. The Twizy also has a 100kg battery and it has under 10kwh. Maybe you could get high quality, lightly-packaged Li ion battery to do 20kwh or more in 100kg. But still, I calculate a minimum cosmically possible 3kwh just to raise craft and pilot 10,000 feet. That’s the 100% efficient ideal, and it doesn’t even count the friction of the air in the way along the 300 mile transverse distance, and I’ve already used a chunk of the charge in the theoretical battery. I’m very excited by this, but I’d love to see it do what it claims 10 trips in a row. Even if it were only half as good as it claims, this would still be an incredible craft.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:33:00 +0000

Great idea! I think electric aircraft will start small and progress upwards (economies of scale, etc) – so this is a perfect stone to step off. Larger commercial jets will probably retain engines, but one day they might be fueled by biofuel instead.

Why not add some more solar cells to the wings though?