Eviation Aircraft, the maker of the Alice electric aircraft, recently “announced a partnership with Clay Lacy Aviation to provide electric charging as part of its FBO network of services.”
Yes, I’m aware Alice has yet to fly and they have much work ahead, but the announcement reminded me of a documentary I watched last year.
“Long Way Up” is about two guys riding two electric Harley Davidson motorcycles from the southern tip of South America to Los Angeles. The two guys are actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.
McGregor and Boorman were supported by two Rivian electric trucks (as well as a gas-powered sprinter-type van and a gas-powered motorcycle).
Long Way Up is the third of three massively long motorcycle rides the pair (and crew) have taken. First was “Long Way Round” and the second was “Long Way Down.” I enjoyed, and recommend, them all.
Anyway, in the early episodes of Long Way Up, there is much hand-wringing over the fact the Harleys and Rivians, in addition to being electric, are prototypes. How are they going to charge the vehicles on the 13,000 mile journey? After all, they’ll be traveling through some of the most rugged and remote places on earth.
Even a simple electric outlet will not be easy to find sometimes.
Rivian to the rescue. They offered to install fast-charging stations along the route ahead of the caravan. Incredibly, they accomplished the task.
And yet, charging the bikes and trucks is an issue for most of the early episodes. The bikes take hours to charge and often fail to charge due to unreliable power or connectors or both.
Readers far smarter than I — admittedly a low hurdle — often point out that the success of electrified aviation will be a challenge for myriad reasons. Charging batteries is chief among those challenges.
Others will point to Alice’s self-claimed 440 nm range at 250 kts as proof that a market will never materialize. After all, they’ll reason, who would want to spend hours re-charging an airplane after flying just 440 nm? Fair point. But Eviation has a “regional commute” in mind for Alice, not necessarily general aviation.
Seattle to Spokane, Washington, is 202 nm. Seattle to Portland is 122 nm. Los Angeles to Sacramento, California, is 312 nm. Houston to Dallas is 185 nm. Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee is 335 nm. You get the idea.
Think of all the short-haul overnight freight. And no, Alice isn’t being designed for freight, but electrified aviation will be, one day, a great fit for short-haul freight.
For sure, it’ll take many more electric charging stations beyond Clay Lacy’s locations. For that matter, electrified aviation will take more than charging stations.
But it’s a first step.
I think that the ‘1st step’ is to develop an aircraft that will meet the mission. The physics of electric powered cross country flight will continue to be a challenge.
The battery re-charging is certainly an issue, but in comparing the Alice projected performance specifications to the Cessna Caravan, I see a disconnect.
The Alice specs are a 16,000 lb gross and a 2,000 fpm roc. That will require about 970 excess horsepower.
The Caravan performance is 8,000 lb gross and 1250 fpm, which requires about 300 excess horsepower, very capable from the 690 hp P&W.
I’ll ignore the cruise airspeeds, but the Alice specs are missing the battery capacity and weight..
Could it be the 8,000 lb difference wrt the Caravan ?
A flight school can do 1 HR lessons but the battery pack must be quickly changed. Just like a cordless saw or drill.
A passenger or freighter will also quickly changed battery packs.
So extra Barry’s will be required with a high up front cost.
Either that or nuclear power.