Bjorn’s Corner: Why hybrid cars work and hybrid airliners have challenges

June 14, 2019, ©. Leeham News: In last week’s Corner we discussed why aircraft with batteries as an energy source will be short ranged for decades to come. The battery energy density is too low and it won’t… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Why Electric Cars work and Airliners don’t

June 7, 2019, ©. Leeham News: In last week’s Corner I wrote: “The reason electric cars work and airliners don’t is the Sky lacks Stoplights“. The discussion was part of my previous series on Electric aircraft, but it… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, the first fall on the Hype curve

May 31, 2019, ©. Leeham News: Last week the new Airbus CTO, Grazia Vittadini, said we should not expect electric aircraft anytime soon when presenting at Airbus Innovation days. What is realistic is hybrid developments, not battery-based designs…. Read More

Zunum Aero is betting on better batteries tomorrow and the day after

By Dan Catchpole danieljcatchpole(at)gmail(dot)com Subscription Required Introduction Oct. 15, 2018, © Leeham News: Battery technology today leaves a lot to be desired. The energy density of even the most advanced batteries are a sliver of the density in… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 13

September 22, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: After 12 articles about electric aircraft, it’s time to wrap up. We will go through what we have learned and discuss future developments. Our designs were aimed for the next decade and the… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 12

September 15, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: Last week we compared the energy economics of our 10-seater electric commuter to an equivalent commuter with gas turbine power. Now we dig a bit deeper in the operational costs of the two… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 11

September 8, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: After our definition of an-all electric 10-seater for Ultra short-haul flying in last Corner, we now compare its economics to a gas turbine propelled design. Our designs have the Zunum Aero 10-seater commuter… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 10

September 1, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: in the nine previous Corners, we looked at 50-seat regional jets and turboprops with hybrid electric propulsion systems. We have seen that at the state of technology until the mid-next decade, such aircraft… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 9

August 25, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: We finished the weight sizing of the hybrid propulsion system for our 50-seat regional turboprop in the last Corner. Now we go a bit more into detail. There are additional parts needed in… Read More

Bjorn’s Corner: Electric aircraft, Part 7

August 11, 2017, ©. Leeham Co: In this Corner, we will design the hybrid propulsion system for our 50-seat regional turboprop. We could see in previous Corners that we can’t use batteries as a backup for our gas turbine… Read More