Over the recent years we have seen an influx in hybrid vehicles and now, fully-electric vehicles being produced. For the most part, these vehicles that use electricity are primarily automobiles, but Airbus is showing us that airplanes can also be completely electric. Last year Airbus released a prototype airplane in collaboration with Daher-Socata and it was a small airplane that was powered by batteries. Known as the E-Fan, Airbus created this electric airplane as a training aircraft for new pilots and it has been very successful. They are now looking to release a production version that will improve on many things over the original.
Airbus is calling the airplane the E-Fan 2.0 and it will be a small, two-seater training aircraft that runs entirely on electric power. Much like Tesla cars, users of the E-Fan 2.0 will be able to simply plug the aircraft into an outlet to charge it. Additionally users can easily swap out the battery packs so they can get back in the air faster. This new model will be larger and more powerful and Airbus hopes to deliver it by 2017.
Despite how promising this airplane is, it is still fairly limited. The E-Fan 2.0 will only be able to fly for about an hour. While that is more than enough for training new pilots, it is obviously not long enough as a realistic means of transportation. Still it is an impressive airplane none the less. Airplanes, especially large commercial jets, consume a great deal of fossil fuels, and with time, electric and hybrid airplanes will make them run more efficiently and clean. Electric and hybrid vehicles also require a considerable less amount of maintenance and are easier to operate. You have to take these things one step at a time, and Airbus is certainly taking steps in the right direction. They hope that they will be able to release a large passenger airplane with a hybrid engine sometime around 2050. So we are still a long ways away from seeing commercial electric airplanes for the mass market, however the E-Fan 2.0 will lay the groundwork for such future vehicles.
Photo from Cnet
