E9X: The battery-powered passenger plane flying up to 1,000 kilometres | Made in Europe
https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/23/e9x-the-battery-powered-plane-with-90-passengers-on-board-and-a-range-of-1000-kilometresOpen linkView original on lemmy.worldSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.worldhttps://www.euronews.com/2026/10/23/e9x-the-battery-powered-plane-with-90-passengers-on-board-and-a-range-of-1000-kilometresOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
14 replies
Ah good, finally I can buy my planes in europe.
If everything goes according to plan, they're hoping to build working models in 2034.
That's their pitch deck for raising money, at least. This is a startup trying to raise money from lenders and investors, before they've proven that this concept can work.
Fossil puppets: "But but but! This cannot go halfway around the world so it's useless!"
Good article. It’s nice that they admit the reality that current batteries are very heavy. I didnt see a mention of how long it takes to recharge. Did i miss it?
At this stage, specs like that are not set in stone. By the time they build one full scale, many things could change. The achievment here is simply demonstrating a path to 1000 km when wings and batteries are integrated.
The scale of those winglets....
It's a toy.
Typical ePlane bullshit. Just another 20 million bro, I promise.
Scroll further down in the article and you see a full-size electric plane that pilots have already logged almost half a million miles in
That's still just a 2-seater. There are many things where scaling upwards runs into the square cube law. Increasing the lift or the thrust of this design would increase the weight even more.
My ability to build a scale model of a bridge that can hold up scale models of automobiles doesn't actually prove that my design is viable with those materials at full size. It's the same for aircraft wings, engines, and actual flight.
Well the company states that the batteries (each 1000kg) are loaded into the wings of the plane, and that the wings will be significantly larger than that of current commercial aircraft, with a passenger count of like 90, and for only 1000km. So you're right, there's definitely a limit, however it still seems like a viable technology.
I remember sitting around the table after a thanksgiving dinner with all my conservative relatives, who were making fun of electric cars, and I said the same thing to them that I'll say to you now. It all starts with a little innovation, that can form a link in the energy chain. Once people prove it can be done, then it will be improved, and improved, until it's no longer a technological marvel, it's just a Tuesday. One day we'll have gas powered crafts purely as collectors items and antiques, and an entire green grid. but you gotta start somewhere.
I'm not discouraging the research. I'm just pointing out that this technology is very much unproven, and that they've got a long, long way to go. I wouldn't get hopes up until they actually build prototype engines with sufficient thrust and power to make the calculations work.
I wonder what it’s going to do to MLW numbers. Usually it’s expected that the plane will be lighter when landing, with batteries it won’t. This will increase structural requirements on the plane, but more so, would it do anything to the runway?
Not going to happen anytime soon.....
I will happily eat my words, but the calculations for the last company that tried to get subsidies for this where hilariously devastating and no way has the tech leaped as far.