First all-electric seaplane takes flight in B.C.
You can do small aircraft like this, no problem. The trouble is you can't scale it up, due to how quickly the power and energy demands go up. This thing is 560 kW and gets a range of 86 nmi; an A320 is around 40 000 kW and has a range of 3 500 nmi, while an A380 is around 80 000 kW and has a range of 8 500 nmi.Going from this DHC-2 to the A380 requires an increase in energy storage by a factor of around 14 000x, while the max takeoff weight ratio between the two planes is only 250.Airbus is developing a hybrid electric jet, the E-Fan X. They've done the math. When their CTO was asked about the possibility of an all-electric A320, the response was"""Assuming for a moment that we’d be able to rely on batteries 30 times as energy dense as that of today, an A320 would be able to fly with half of its payload for one-fifth of its current range, 500nm max. So, assuming a battery which today does not exist... It doesn’t work, purely electrical will not work."""