I missed a lot of things while I was in Africa. There was an obsession with Facebook vanity URLs that still doesn’t quite make sense to me, the launch of a new iPhone that I still won’t buy because it doesn’t have a keyboard (cue the Apple fanboy trolls) and–most exciting to me but most under reported– a milestone in electric aviation. I fantasize about electric, supersonic planes the way others fantasize about Hollywood celebrities or, I guess, new iPhones. It’s the result of spending as much as 30-hours per trip on dirty, fuel-spewing, noisy planes with broken entertainment systems and bathroom doors that don’t always lock. (Did I mention I fly coach?)
Earlier this month, in Turin, Italy, Italian astronaut Maurizo Cheli set a world record for speed for a 100% electric plane at 155 mph. That’s still slow compared to commercial jets, but remember when electric cars only went a few feet and looked like go-karts? It’s progress, right? The promise is a bit more exciting than the actual video, but here it is anyway. We now return you to regularly scheduled Twitter, Facebook and iPhone news.
I have just thought of it a while ago. A dream comes true))))))))))))))))))))))
Who made this plane? How long can it stay flying? If possible a link for more info. I cannot wait to read more about it.
Frankly, I am so tired that people are obsessed with big engine cars, stupid bikes which are practically useless for life, and of course the celebrities which you have mentioned.
Many thanks for posting that))))) In future when I will get private pilot license, I will be wishing for one of those.
Huh? Who cares? Sorry to hear you have to fly coach, must be awful.
Love it, just hope this technology makes it further.
No. When will you PC morons learn that electric is not good for the environment. Its more wasteful and poluting than gasoline. Get a brain. That crap comming out of the socket doesn’t just show up by magic.
well at least you still found a way to link to twitter in this post
It’s really very exciting! I wish the inset vid was a close-up of the gauges though – the suspense of wondering when the big flashing red “WARNING” light for a weak battery was killing me! Too cool. We will eventually develop an ultra-efficient motors and transferring the energy into kinetic power better than we do now. It’s coming…
Green collective hysteria. The first real issue to solve is: how to produce *real* green and *cheap* electricity available to the mass.
There are countries where this issue is already solved, long time. Practically whole Norway is using energy created from waterpower.
In the long term solar energy and the like will solve it for the rest of the world.
>There are countries where this issue is already solved, long time.
um, not really.
>>There are countries where this issue is already solved, long time.
>um, not really.
Maybe not completly, but even large industrial countries such as my home country, Germany, are already producing double-digit percentages of there (electrical) energy consumption using renewable energies. Plus the efficency and cost increases in the last years have been huge, making “green” electricity more and more affordable on a large scale.
I don’t know how much weight they would add but if you cover the plane with solar panels and fly above the clouds, then it would help, huh?
On another note, they forgot to to include the “Volare” song.
“bathroom doors that don’t always lock.”
Sarah, you find the benefit in everything!
Sarah, if you’re ever in Chicago, let me know and I’ll take you up for an Air Tour of the city. (My plane still burns gas, but nobody’s perfect.)
I’m in Chicago and I read Sarah’s posts… does that count?
There is no way to build a supersonic plane unless it’s a jet. The only way to build an electric jet is: to make a high-frequency plasma gun (sorry, I have a Ph. D. in plasma physics, I had to say that).
Bottom line: supersonic electric plane would be REALLY noisy (approx. as the first V (’fau’) pulse jets made in Germany btw).
So… for now… go back to your knitting, Sara, you will have an appearance of certain degree of smartness.
I’m all for the high frequency plasma gun. And then, once built, I think it should be used on all of Sarah Lacy’s posts before they are published.
Damn Alex, for a person with a PHD in Plasma Physics you would think you could show more humility and not see the need to bash people.
dunno… imo, her post is so stupid I was kinda hoping someone would serve up a friendly little dope-slap.
I’m just tired of this SV arrogance, man. Really. Do you know how many times this has been calculated and researched?
It can be done (as I said), but this V’ would produce a 10kHz 100db noise and it’s track would be visible on all radars (that’s why the ‘warriors for the democracy’ never attempted this thing).
There’s NO WAY to do anything usable down this path, just because the amount of energy stored in 1g of jet fuel is 100 times more than the amount stored in any contemporary battery. So, even this ‘flying whistler’ will be possible in around 20 years from now…
Sarah is just… I don’t know what it is with her (besides the SV idiocy), but I’m tired of it.
*in 1g of a contemporary battery
of course
“the launch of a new iPhone that I still won’t buy because it doesn’t have a keyboard”
So no CrunchPad for you then
Actually it does have a keyboard, one of the best out there, it cracks me up when people say it NEEDS a physical keyboard, in 10 years you will be hard pressed to find a physical keyboard. Get on the bus or get left behind.
“cue the Apple fanboy trolls” – really? is that necessary?
Apparently it was necessary.
And, it does NEED a keyboard. Besides being on AT&T, that’s my other major issue with the iPhone. Why doesn’t apple realize they can release two or three different styles for the iPhone just like they do with the iPod?
Completely agree. I’m 6′6″ with huge hands (I can palm a basketball and swing my arm around). I was sure I wouldn’t be able to easily type with no physical keys. I had a hard enough time on a Blackberry previously. But the iPhone keyboard was not a problem at all. The autocorrect makes it easy to use. The key preview before release also helped to learn to type because I got feedback on where my finger was.
I totally agree, and it pisses me off when people say that a big problem with the iPhone is that it lacks a physical keyboard because the people who say that have obviously never typed anything on an iPhone; at least not for more than 10 seconds. Sure it takes a very small bit of getting used to (what keyboard doesn’t?) but it’s the future people; get with the program or get left in the dust with your Newton.
Awesome! My childhood dreams are slowly starting to come true!
Electric cars..now electric planes..Electricity companies on a roll!!!
Check out this ambitious project to fly around the world in a solar plane http://www.solarimpulse.com.
You didn’t actually say what your electric plane fantasy was.
Really great invention let’s hope for the best in future.
Cue the excessive sarcasm and humility bragging
looks pretty awesome. yeah, renewable electricity needs to find some way to catch on.
why condescending towards your TC peers? i don’t get it …
I still can’t wrap my head around an electric motor being anywhere near as powerful as a jet combustion engine. Nonetheless, this is a great innovation for light planes with low range.
Electric cars = coal-burning cars.
I get you on the iPhone lack of keyboard and the FB URL silliness, but I don’t get the electric plane thing. If you had talked about a means of using the weak nuclear force instead, I’d be interested. But not electromagnetism…
Sarah,
“(cue the Apple fanboy trolls)” = “trolling said Apple fanboy trolls for a response”. Are you trying to be the new Dvorak?
If so, may I make a suggestion? Reduce / cut out your parenthetical musings from your posts. It’s indicative of poor editing, and almost always needlessly distracts the reader from the actual real content of your posts which, were it not for the troll bait, often have something to offer.
Speaking of the iPhone, why hasn’t any physical keyboard lover – such as yourself – investigated to see if a 3rd party is planning to release a external case/slide out keyboard ?
For planes, fuel-cells make much more sense than for cars.
If it doesn’t have a physical keyboard, I’ll throw that sniznizzle right in that trashdizzle.
My, Sarah, but isn’t your self-absorption showing!
- I missed a lot of things while I was in Africa
- I fantasize about electric, supersonic planes
- A new iPhone that I still won’t buy
- Did I mention I fly coach?
..all in one paragraph. You certainly seem to see yourself as really, really important.
Hint: Reporting. Isn’t. About. You.
Can I like this comment, or digg it or something?
The link says the plane is currently LiPoly batteries, but they are planning on using “Hydrogen Fuel Cells”. It’s sad to see they still believe in the Hydrogen Fairy. Hydrogen has so many problems (generation and storage chief among them) that you really need to question anybody considering it as a fuel source.
I’duno, NASA seems to have been pretty successful at using Hydrogen as a fuel to launch rockets, including the Space Shuttle, for many decades.
Fire her, fire her, Michael, please , please get rid of her!!! This is so anoying!
I propose a little stat game. Let’s take every TechCrunch author into account. For each one let’s count the percentage of appearances of the word “I” in every article relative to it’s total word count.
If that’s too complicated, hoew many TechCrunch authors start their articles with the word “I”. Not too many but one.
She just has to understand that SHE is not the story. We do not care what SHE does. We want stories of start-ups, for gods sake!!!
Michael, please! Why, why, why!!!
I wish Techcrunch would just leave the electric cars and electric planes for another media source to cover. That’s more the domain of Wired magazine or Popular Mechanics (as 2 examples). Stick to the internet stuff. Just my opinion.
If they can make it for about the price of a car then I will take one.
Cool and all, but I dont foresee any pure electric commercial planes for quite some time… perhaps even light years
cool stuff!