Electric plane

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prototype Eviation Alice , 2019
Sunseeker, 2005
AeroVironment Helios , 2001

A Electric Aircraft (or electric airplane) is an aircraft with one or more electric motors is driven.

Until almost recently, apart from solar planes , electric drives were mostly only used as auxiliary drives for gliders . With the new lithium-ion batteries , electric aircraft are much more possible, at least for short-haul flights. Electric aircraft propulsion systems are a technological option with regard to an energy transition in the aviation sector.

background

In view of the energy transition and the limited availability of fossil energy resources, there is a need to convert aircraft to renewable energy . In addition to power-to-fuel ( e-fuel ), synthetic fuels or biofuels obtained from renewable energies , electric aircraft are an approach to achieve this for shorter distances. Since many flights are actually only short-haul flights of up to 1000 kilometers, this is a possible approach that is now increasingly being researched and developed.

technology

Up to now, electric motors with propellers , ducted propellers or rotors have been driven by the current from the on-board power storage devices such as accumulators or supercapacitors . If the required energy is generated directly by solar radiation, then it is a solar airplane . Alternatively, the electricity can be generated by carrying hydrogen via fuel cells, in which case it is a hydrogen aircraft . A hybrid electric aircraft , on the other hand, is a combination of an electric drive with a combustion drive, this represents a future alternative for ranges up to and including medium-haul routes. The design as a vertical take-off short-haul aircraft without a pilot, which is more intended for city traffic , is called an autonomous air taxi .

properties

advantages
disadvantage
  • only short-haul flights possible with batteries as main energy storage; Batteries have a much lower energy density than fuels, so larger amounts of energy quickly result in a higher take-off weight

The flight performance, in particular the range of the new developments, does not yet come close to that of conventional propulsion systems, but the operating costs - especially for the use of energy - are considerably lower. The reason for this is: Kerosene has an energy density of 43 MJ / kg, whereas even the best lithium-ion batteries only have an energy density of 1 MJ / kg.

Overview of technical and economic parameters
technology Energy density in Wh / kg Acquisition costs in euros / kWh use costs
Capacitors 0.1-15 5,150-12,000 0.13-0.76 euros / kWh
Lithium batteries 90-250 100-200 0.13-0.76 euros / kWh
Kerosene approx. 11,500 - approx. 0.50 euros / liter

The main advantage of an electric drive is that it is maintenance-free. With conventional drives, this makes up a considerable proportion of the operating costs. An additional advantage is the material and environmentally friendly running smoothness due to the almost complete absence of vibrations. In addition, all maintenance and control work relating to oil, cooling water, fuel and air filters, exhaust systems and gearboxes, as well as the immense risk of transporting an extremely flammable, explosive liquid in an aircraft, are completely eliminated. In addition, electric drives provide the desired torque at any temperature, air density and speed. This is particularly important for the critical take-off phase of aircraft, but also when ascending to an energy-efficient flight altitude.

Ion propulsion

In the future, plasma drives could be used, which have since been investigated in more detail in laboratories in China and Spain. Air is sucked into a glass tube and broken down by microwave radiation in the gigahertz range; the ions generated in the process then flow outwards at 1000 degrees Celsius. A thrust of 28 Newtons can be generated per kilowatt . The energy efficiency is the same as that of a jet engine. In 2018, a small ion-propelled missile from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took off in the United States and flew at a height of 47 centimeters over a distance of 60 meters. In space travel, ion propulsion is actually used in probes and satellites. The available thrust is still far too low for commercial aviation.

history

Beginnings and early developments

The inventions of aeronautical engineering and the invention of electric motors were prerequisites for an electric flight. Probably the first electrically powered flight was on October 8, 1883 by Gaston Tissandier in an airship. In addition, Arthur Constantin Krebs gave that in 1884 with an airship called La France .

In the Soviet Union from 1961 a machine of the strategic bomber TU-95 with nuclear drive was tested. The aircraft, called Tu-95LaL and Tu-119, had a nuclear reactor on board, but it never served as a drive, it was a feasibility study for a long-range bomber and reconnaissance aircraft with nuclear propulsion.

Model airplanes were equipped with quiet electric motors by Fred Militky, for example, before 1973.

The first flight of a manned (surface) electric aircraft is generally considered to be the first flight of the MB-1E (MB: Militky Brditschka) OE-9023 on October 21, 1973, with which the Austrian Heino Brditschka (* 1950, son of Heinrich Brditschka , * 1930 ) as a pilot held an entry in the Guinness Book of Records that was not outbid for a long time . The information on the length of the flight varies from 9:05 to 14 minutes. The flight took place after a 70 m take-off distance at a height of 300-360 m and a maximum speed of 139 km / h. The MTOW was 440 kilograms, NiCd batteries from Varta delivered 15 kW of power, and a Bosch motor worked on the pressure screw behind the cab via several pulleys in one step, slowing down. At some point the aircraft reached the Graz-Thalerhof flight museum incomplete , was supplemented and restored here from 2016 and was presented to visitors on October 26, 2017 - not airworthy. HB-Flugtechnik is now planning to equip the HB-23 (previously with a combustion engine) with a battery electric motor drive.

As early as 1981, the Heidelberg engineer Karl Friedel was the first German to fly a record with two converted 3 kW Bosch windshield wiper motors with the hang glider "Windspiel" and made a name for himself. Also fed by normal nickel-cadmium cells, it flew 12 minutes and 30 seconds at the Friedrichshafen-Löwental airfield on the occasion of the RMF, later renamed AERO . Germany's first electric flight! The “airplane” is now in the Technology Museum in Sinsheim. The device was also presented as the first electric flight in Switzerland on the occasion of the Militky-Kup in Pfäffikon (near Zurich) in the same year.

In 1981 Steve Ptacek crossed the English Channel for the first time with the Solar Challenger , a flight duration of 5 hours and 23 minutes.

From 2000 to 2019

In Germany there are already two self-launching gliders with type certification , the Lange Antares 20E and the Silent AE-1. Electric aircraft are widely used in the form of model airplanes, such as shock flyers and slow flyers .

Pipistrel has been developing the electric motor glider Pipistrel Taurus in the UL class since 2006 . The first flight was in December 2007, and series production of the second generation Taurus Electro G2 began in early 2011.

Since around 2007 there have been elongated blimps with lengths of around 1.5–10 m for photo or video flights, which can only be used indoors or when there is little wind and are later replaced by quadrocopter drones.

There were new impulses in the spring of 2009 in Friedrichshafen at the trade fair, especially on the subject of "electric flight". The UL Yuneec has been in flight testing since 2009. It has a 30 kW motor and a battery capacity of 1.5 hours as standard. The start of sales was planned for 2011, the price quoted to date is competitive with conventional ULs and motor gliders.

Metallized foil balloons that are electrically powered have been available as toys since around 2012. On the one hand there are those in zeppelin / cigar shape with LiIon batteries in the front and 1–2 motors in the back. A smaller, simpler version has a rather flat-lens-shaped buoyancy body and a pair of motors arranged below, to the right and left of the center, the speed of which can be controlled separately and the common carrier can be rotated around a transverse axis in such a way that an upward and downward component can climb and Falling can be effected. The minimal version has a narrow-high cross-section and a tail fin that can be swiveled quickly around a vertical axis either all the way to the right or left, or with a steady wagging motion. It is the only propulsion and control element. The balloon, which is only around 50-60 long in total, must be trimmed to sink slightly; the activation of the drive causes it to rise a little.

A new project is in progress in the USA: The two-seater Elektra-Flyer-X is to emerge from the already flyable kitplane prototype (kit airplane) Electra-Flyer-C.

According to the airworthy concept study Airbus E-Fan , Airbus is working on the conception of a commercial aircraft for around 80 passengers that will be electrically powered. It should also be possible to charge the batteries by recovering energy when gliding or descending.

Between 2015 and 2016, the Swiss Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg managed to circumnavigate the world with the solar aircraft Solar Impulse . The aim of the project was to raise awareness of the need to save energy.

At the Paris Air Show 2019, the Eviation Alice, a 9-passenger airliner, was presented and is scheduled to go into commercial operation in 2022.

According to the company, the first flight of an electrically powered airliner took place in December 2019 with a converted DHC-2 Beaver , which took off from the Fraser River near Vancouver . The retrofitting for the electric drive was carried out by the company Magnix from Seattle . The flight was operated by Greg McDougall, the head of the operating Harbor Air . The company's goal is to start commercial flight operations within the next two years.

From 2020

On May 28, 2020, the companies MagniX and AeroTEC presented the largest electric aircraft to date, with a converted Cessna 208 caravan . This airplane flew purely electrically for 30 minutes with a Magni 500 electric motor with 560 kilowatts. It has space for nine passengers and took off from Grant County International Airport in the US state of Washington .

In June 2020, for the first time, an electric aircraft received a type approval from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the Slovenian Pipistrel Velis Elektro . This aircraft is to be used mainly for pilot training. It has a Pipistrel E-811-268MVLC electric motor with a maximum of 57.6 kilowatts. That was an important milestone for the electrification of aviation.

The EasyJet / Wright Electric concept is expected to carry around 180 passengers over 540 km purely electrically from 2027. Z. B. the route from Amsterdam to London. There is also a cooperation with Airbus in this regard .

See also

literature

Books
  • Kevin Desmond: Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History , McFarland, 2018 ISBN 978-1-4766-6961-8
  • Klaus L. Schulte: Electric flight - technology, history, future. KLS Publishing, Cologne 2014 ISBN 978-3-942095-44-0
  • Pascal Thalin: Fundamentals of Electric Aircraft , SAE International, Warrendale 2018, ISBN 978-0-7680-9322-3
  • Ravi Rajamani: Electric Flight Techology: The Unfolding of a New Future , SAE International, Warrendale 2018, ISBN 978-0-7680-8469-6
items
  • Lots of articles about electric aircraft. In: energyload.eu. Retrieved December 14, 2019 .
  • Heinrich Großbongardt: Flying under power: Electric propulsion. In: AERO International , No. 11/2017, pp. 40–42, 44
  • Special part: Electric flying. In: FliegerRevue , No. 9/2018, pp. 32–41
  • Special part: Electric flying. In: FliegerRevue , No. 8/2020, pp. 32–43
  • Christoph Brenner: Is the future electric? In: AERO International , No. 10/2019, pp. 36–39
  • Tim Schröder, Gregor Honsel: Flying can get this green. (Cover story) In: Technology Review (German edition), No. 11/2019, pp. 28–30, 32–35 ISSN  1613-0138
  • The first fully electric flight school. In: FliegerRevue , No. 11/2019, p. 38
  • Do Airlines Dream of Electric Fleets? In: AIR International , No. 2, 2020 of March, pp. 90-95

Web links

Wiktionary: Electric aircraft  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Electric Airplanes  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
General
history
Videos

References and comments

  1. ↑ The drive means of the future. In: Klaus L. Schulte: Electric flight - technology, history, future , 2014, ISBN 978-3-942095-44-0 , pp. 28-29
  2. ↑ Real Engineering: Are Electric Planes Possible? on YouTube , July 20, 2018, accessed on June 21, 2020 (there at approximately 1:30 to 1:35 minutes).
  3. ↑ M. Sterner, I. Stadler: Energy storage: Demand, technologies, integration , SpringerVieweg, 2nd edition, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-662-48892-8 , p. 649 ff
  4. ↑ Worldwide price development for lithium-ion batteries from 2013 to 2022 (in euros / kWh). In: statista.com. Retrieved June 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Matthias Mett: Aerospace: Plasma drives rethought. In: heise.de. June 18, 2020, accessed June 19, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Without fuel: MIT tests first aircraft with ion propulsion. In: futurezone.at. November 21, 2018, accessed June 19, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Real Engineering: Ion Propulsion: The Plane With No Moving Parts on YouTube , December 28, 2018, accessed June 28, 2020.
  8. ↑ Kevin Desmond: Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History , 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-6961-8 , p. 19; with source reference to: Kevin Desmond: Gustave Trouvé: French Electrical Genius , McFarland 2015
  9. ↑ Kevin Desmond: Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History , 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-6961-8 , pp. 22-23
  10. ↑ Турбовинтовые самолеты Ту-95 / Ту-114 / Ту-142 / Ту-95МС , ISBN 978-5-98734-025-7
  11. ↑ Kevin Desmond: Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History , 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-6961-8 , pp. 66-67
  12. ^ The Guinness Book of Records 1994 . Bantam, 1994, ISBN 978-0-553-56561-4 , pp. 328 .
  13. ↑ a b Ron Moulton: An electric airplane . In: Flight International . Volume 104, No. 3378 . IPC Transport Press, London December 6, 1973, p. 946 ( available online (PDF) [accessed January 19, 2012]).
  14. ↑ Chronicle. In: hb-flugtechnik.at. HB-Flugtechnik , accessed on November 27, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Militky MB-E1. (1973) In: Klaus L. Schulte: Electric flight - Technologie, Geschichte, Zukunft , 2014, ISBN 978-3-942095-44-0 , pp. 159-160
  16. ↑ Franz Zussner: Photo report from the second rollout of the world's first electric aircraft austrianwings.info, October 27, 2017 accessed November 12, 2017.
  17. ↑ In the chronology at the end of the book (Appendix D): Kevin Desmond: Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History , 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-6961-8 , pp. 291-292 (here: p. 291)
  18. ^ Solar Challenger. In: Klaus L. Schulte: Electric flight - technology, history, future , 2014, ISBN 978-3-942095-44-0 , pp. 137-138
  19. ↑ Press release ( memento from June 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the German sales partner, accessed on March 29, 2011.
  20. ↑ Werner Pluta: Airbus E-Concept: The airliner is going electric. golem.de , May 22, 2014, accessed on May 22, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Lutz Reiche: This man wants to redefine flying. In: Manager Magazin . June 19, 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
  22. ↑ a b c Jon Hemmerdinger: Harbor Air flies 'first' all-electric commercial aircraft, a DHC-2 Beaver. In: flightglobal.com. December 10, 2019, accessed December 11, 2019 .
  23. ↑ First fully electrically powered airliner completes first flight. In: airliners.de. December 11, 2019, accessed December 11, 2019 .
  24. ↑ S. Schaal: US companies report first flight of the largest electric aircraft to date. In: electrive.net. May 29, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  25. ↑ a b c Stephan Eiselin: Cessna 208 Caravan flies electrically: electric plane breaks world record. In: aerotelegraph.com. May 20, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020 .
  26. ↑ a b c Lars Reinhold: EASA approval for Velis Elektro. In: aerokurier. June 10, 2020, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Victoria Moores: EasyJet joins electric aircraft project . In: Aviation Week Network , September 27, 2017. 
  28. ↑ Samantha Masunaga: This LA electric plane startup is working with EasyJet to develop electric jetliners . In: LA Times , September 27, 2017. 
  29. ^ Wright Electric .
  30. ^ Stefan Eiselin: Amsterdam - London as a route for electric pilots. In: aerotelegraph.com. October 30, 2018, accessed November 2, 2018 .
  31. ↑ Stefan Eiselin: Easyjet passengers now fly climate-neutral. In: aerotelegraph.com. November 19, 2019, accessed November 19, 2019 .