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DHL Orders 12 Electric Cargo Planes

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nternational courier DHL is set to embrace electric flight by ordering 12 all-electric cargo planes from Eviation. We're still getting use to the idea of all vehicles on the road eventually ditching gas for batteries, but the same transition is beginning to happen in the air, too. In April, UPS ordered 10 electric aircraft from Beta Technologies, and now DHL is making a similar move. (www.pcmag.com) Ещё...

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Propwash122
Peter Fuller 6
Cape Air is taking a hard look at this airplane for short-distance passenger services:

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2021-07-22/cape-air-prepares-operate-eviations-alice-electric-commuter
gsergienko
Greg Sergienko 5
Yes. I believe Kenmore Air is looking at it, too. https://www.kenmoreair.com/.

Short trips to islands are ideal. They're not competing with cars, and ships are a lot slower.
kae0088
Ken Endacott 3
Wing surfaces coated in solar cells would extend the range.
tzoia1
Franco Prizzi 1
Propwash122
Peter Fuller 1
Wind turbines as in windmilling props on initial descent to recharge batteries.
kae0088
Ken Endacott 2
Quite feasible, like electric car regenerative breaking.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
I doubt that would be too viable... It would be difficult to reliably switch between charge and discharge as the Charging has to be regulated... Also, they would need to power for a controlled decent... Another question arises here? How are they going to pressurize the plane?
kae0088
Ken Endacott 1
If you have driven an electric car you would have experienced the seamless switching between re-generative braking and power under computer control. Electric motors make great generators.
Electric aircraft would have other issues such as the power needed for pressurisation, heating and avionics. However, they will initially be used for short hops at low altitudes.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Yes... Very short hops... like LGA to EWR!
tzoia1
Franco Prizzi 1
An electrical static compressor should be needed. And e-consuption incereases......
i was wondering something simple like backup RATs : if nowadays one RAT is enought to supply power to a wide-body with engines off, i suppose it could recharge batteries in flight if correctly dimensioned, in parallel with solar cells better.
Just wondering fantasy future.

sparkie624
sparkie624 1
I do not think so... Keep in mind that the RAT only powers essential systems and not the entire A/C. By the time the RAT is only the plane has already completed automatic load shedding... The RAT only produces slightly more than it takes to drive the Required Avionics and Flight Control Systems... Also keep in mind that if you had the RAT out running all the time to power the A/C, the Drag Created would consume more than it is supplying to start with!
Propwash122
Peter Fuller 1
Agreed that the RAT scheme wouldn’t work. I’ve read of designers experimenting with the idea of putting windmills in the wingtip vortices to recover energy, but there too I doubt the energy recovered would overcome the additional drag.
tzoia1
Franco Prizzi 1
OK got it. thank for reply about drag problem.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Probably more Coal and Natural Gas Powered... Wind and Solar produce - According to google, only 8.9% of all electricity is produced by Solar and Wind power combined!
BrianL
BrianL 2
Also this is old news.
https://flightaware.com/squawks/view/1/1_year/new/85665/The_shipping_company_DHL_is_the_first_customer_for_Eviation_s_electric_cargo_planes
RickBennette
Rick Bennette 1
It’s amazing this plane exists today. The future will bring greater range and useful load as battery technology improves.
BrianL
BrianL 0
As a pilot, would you trust flying that? I wouldn't. Maybe in a few more decades.
And they only carry 2,500 pounds of cargo, and only a 440 mile max range.

Just don't fly near my house.
sparkie624
sparkie624 3
Maybe there is a reason they only ordered 12 :) also they may be getting a great Tax Deduction for Going Green and only using Coal Power instead of Jet Fuel!
deedoubleu
Don Wade -3
I’m not a pilot but here’s one for you.
How do you “dump the fuel” for an emergency landing on a battery only system?
Propwash122
Peter Fuller 6
You don’t. If and when this thing gets certified, the certification will set the max landing weight to equal the max takeoff weight.
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
You just took all the fun out of the comment!
Scumhook
Scumhook 2
You get everyone to start charging their iPhones?
sparkie624
sparkie624 2
That wouldn't work... All IPhone Users charge their phone anytime they are around a USB plug.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
I would sure add a new definition to a Fuel Dump..... LOL or you could have a Current Bridge and short it across the batter to bleed off the current so that when it crashed you would simply have not power for the motors... :)
chanyimchow
YIM CHOW CHAN -3

[This poster has been suspended.]

Scumhook
Scumhook 5
sshhhhhhh, please don't interject facts into what is essentially a faith-based argument...
sparkie624
sparkie624 3
From the Coal, Nuclear, and Natural Gas Power! Just wait til the thing gets a Battery Over Temp.. Divers into an outstation out in the middle of no where and they have to ship a few 1000 pound batteries out to no where and have a team of mechanics to change them out... A good team should have that done in 3 or 4 days, so no problem!
jimsarushfan
Huck Finn -3
Where do they think electricity comes from? That's right, coal and oil! But it's good theatre!
gsergienko
Greg Sergienko 5
Your info is very dated. IN the US, coal is only 19% of electricity generation and petroleum is 1%.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php

That amount is going to get smaller

[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

deegeedee
deegeedee 2
Download this spreadsheet put out by ERCOT in Texas and look at the summary sheet.

http://www.ercot.com/content/wcm/lists/181766/IntGenbyFuel2021.xlsx

Coal is 19% and wind is 24%. Coal is going away, just like the whale oil you burn in your lanterns.
user3956
user3956 2
So whatever level of fossil fuels that is now powering the grid isn't even the point - regardless of the fact that those numbers will reduce over time. There are other benefits of going electric such as the energy saved by NOT having to haul around heavy liquid fuel. The transmission of electricity over the grid to the consuming vehicles saves money and reduces environmental impact because it wasn't necessary to burn fossil fuels to transport the liquid fossil fuels to the local fueling stations. Crazy concept to understand, I know... Then there is also the fact that it's easier to upgrade the emissions capturing technology (as it gets better) when it exists in fewer places - such as the smoke stacks of coal burning facilities. That is much easier than trying to recall all engines and upgrade their emissions capturing tech. These are CRAZY concepts to try and understand I know, but please do your best.
PattiDavis
Patti Davis 2
What is the plan for all of the dead batteries. Electric car batteries can not be reconditioned and reused. How will all of these toxic chemicals in these dead batteries be environmentally managed?
user3956
user3956 -1
This is one of the things that improvement is being worked on, just like carbon sequestering and other aspects of the modernization of our power grid as is necessary per the increased needs for power consumption. The lifecycle of the batteries including refurbishing and recycling is something that has a way to go before it's at the level necessary for a future that is largely electric powered. Does this mean we halt all work towards the progress of making the switch to electric? I wouldn't think so. Anyway it will probably be something like each battery is refurbed a certain number of times before it's a total waste and is recycled as much as is possible.
PattiDavis
Patti Davis 1
Currently car batteries in electric cars cannot be refurbished. That’s my point. We have several thousand electric vehicles on the road already and no battery disposal plan. We need to stop until we solve this problem. Trading one problem for IMHO a worse problem isn’t solving anything.
tzoia1
Franco Prizzi 2
Italian CNR ICCOM has a Patent for Low Temperature treating of Li-Ion batteries "Black Mass" that refurbishes Li,Mn,Al,Cu,Cb,Nh, without Pyrolysys.
American Manganese has a US one.
R&D is faster than us, and we are just at the beginnig of the process.

Useful Links:
https://www.lifegate.it/il-riciclo-delle-batterie-al-litio-e-un-punto-di-svolta
https://americanmanganeseinc.com/american-manganese-granted-u-s-patent-for-lithium-ion-battery-cathode-material-recycling-technology/
user3956
user3956 2
Like I said, "it will probably be something like each battery is refurbed a certain number of times before it's a total waste and is recycled as much as is possible". This means that as the tech to recycle improves, so will the designs of the batteries to accommodate that process. Stopping doesn't make any sense, the tech will catch up. Do you also think we should stop using plastics altogether because there hasn't yet been instituted a satisfactory program to recycle it? No, you didn't, so why stop the move to electric vehicles? Btw, new enzymes are showing an ability to break difficult-to-recycle plastics down in record time and are looking to revolutionize our ability to recycle them. The same is going to happen with E-car batteries, it's common sense.
PattiDavis
Patti Davis 0
YES Plastic is a problem! We should replace plastic bottles with steel and glass.
tzoia1
Franco Prizzi 1
PattiDavis
Patti Davis -2
What is the plan for all of the dead batteries. Electric car batteries can not be reconditioned and reused. Has this problem been solved for airplane batteries? How will all of these toxic chemicals in these dead batteries be environmentally managed?
jfitzgerald2112
Joe Fitzgerald 6
https://spectrum.ieee.org/lithiumion-battery-recycling-finally-takes-off-in-north-america-and-europe
deegeedee
deegeedee 1
This is a new technology, give it a second ok? How are your whale oil lanterns working out for you? https://electrek.co/2021/08/09/tesla-battery-cell-material-recovery-new-recycling-process/
PattiDavis
Patti Davis -2
Currently car batteries in electric cars cannot be refurbished. That’s my point. We have several thousand electric vehicles on the road already and no battery disposal plan. We need to stop until we solve this problem. Trading one problem for IMHO a worse problem isn’t solving anything.
user3956
user3956 5
Why are you double posting your anti-progress-stay-in-the-stone-ages rhetoric? The future IS electric, and we WILL have the ability to recycle the batteries as the associated technology improves. It's being worked on like everything else.
PattiDavis
Patti Davis -1
Trading one problem for a wore one doesn’t help! Solve the battery useage and disposable problem before going mainstream with the concept and creating a future “dead battery toxic dump” or the need for us to send all of this toxic man made created garbage into outer space.
SOLVE PROBLEMS WITHOUT CREATING BIGGER ONES!
deegeedee
deegeedee 2
Tesla says they can reclaim 92% of the battery. We're still early days here. I suppose you were on the sidelines in 1903 shouting "It'll never fly Orville!"

https://electrek.co/2021/08/09/tesla-battery-cell-material-recovery-new-recycling-process/

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