Hybrid Airplanes are Coming.

[porwolf]

Airbus Charged Up About Electric Planes : Discovery News

[onewhippedpuppy]

They are a LONG way from prime time, at least for manned civil and commercial applications. Weight is enemy #1 with aircraft, until batteries are developed with higher energy density they are simply too heavy to be viable.

[kach22i]

Solar panel electric drones flying overhead 24/7 using batteries at night cannot be far off.

Corkscrew up during the day, corkscrew down flight path at night.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Solar panel electric drones flying overhead 24/7 using batteries at night cannot be far off.

Corkscrew up during the day, corkscrew down flight path at night.

The technology is getting there. I worked on the Vulture Program at DARPA in the early stages. http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/TTO/Programs/Vulture.aspx

Speed and payload, as OWP mentioned, are limiting factors for commercial travel at reasonable gross weights.

In the small UAS I use in commercial work, they are all electric for any number of reasons, vibration mostly. We get amazing endurance from small battery footprints but our payloads are under 5lbs.

I am working with the Silent Falcon guys. They have one of the best emerging small UAS there is: Silent-Falcon sUAS

[Joeaksa]

Its one thing for the military to have these and totally different for the civilian market. Reliability is the key and its kinda hard to get sun on the panels in large parts of the world...

[afterburn 549]

Takes us back to Tesla, how did he do it ?
Rhetorical I know ...Seems if he could at the turn of the century...what is stopping us now?
He drove a electric car around (documented) in Niagra falls. With No battery!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

a friend has just bought one of these, being shipped as I type, think it is only one of two in the US

Pipistrel Aircraft Taurus Electro | Pipistrel

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by kach22i

Solar panel electric drones flying overhead 24/7 using batteries at night cannot be far off.

Corkscrew up during the day, corkscrew down flight path at night.

Tech is there, at the high end. Very high end solar panels on all surfaces of the body (up and down), Lithium batteries. Craft has to be designed for endurance, not speed. Biggest issue will be high-speed winds, which could take it out of the target area.

At this point, it would not be able to have a payload beyond electronic surveillance.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Its one thing for the military to have these and totally different for the civilian market. Reliability is the key and its kinda hard to get sun on the panels in large parts of the world...

If the altitude is high enough, there is no problem with the sunlight. Although I will grant you that the higher in latitude you go the less direct sunlight.

[john70t]

Graphene is going to be big in the future, I'll predict.
In aviation, transportation, and perhaps building and consumer electronics.

The 10 strangest facts about graphene | ZDNet
"4, 5 & 6. Best at electricity
And in case that doesn't impress you, Manchester University's Dr Leonid Ponomarenko points out that graphene also has "the highest current density (a million times that of copper) at room temperature; the highest intrinsic mobility (100 times more than in silicon); and conducts electricity in the limit of no electrons". Which means it can carry more electricity more efficiency, faster and with more precision than any other material.

8 & 9. Elastic
Well, for a crystal, anyway. Graphene stretches up to 20 percent of its length. And yet it is also the stiffest known material — even stiffer than diamond.

10. Thermal conductivity
Graphene also beats diamond in thermal conductivity. In fact, graphene now holds the record for conducting heat — it's better than any other known material."