The answer is a clear “Kind of…”.
If you want a more detailed reply, maybe you should watch this video from AVweb VODCAST with Paul Bertorelli interviewing Dr. Pat Anderson of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3P0gASnWIo
Years ago, I visited Dr. Anderson at ERAU and saw him work with his students on improving battery technology and controllers and on ways to make them safe for use on board of airplanes.
At the time we had all high hopes that batteries would develop fast into lighter and more dense energy storage solutions.
When I talked with him more recently, I took one message home from the conversation: “In the last ten years battery storage capacity has improved 3% per year on the average.”
That does not sound too encouraging from the mouth of someone who really has spent much of his time in the last ten years to acquire knowledge and expertise about electric flight like almost no one else.
And it is clear, as of today, we cannot design and produce an aircraft with electric propulsion from batteries that can compete with comparable light aircraft. The problem are the batteries. They are not there yet. That may change. But as long as we have no concrete information about new developments, we cannot count on that.
But there is one thing we can do today: We can create a pure electric airplane, based on MS-1, that would be ideal to serve in a flight school environment. Many flight training missions take an hour flight time. Beyond that we need 30 minutes reserve. That’s an FAA standard which will not be up for discussion.
But an hour and thirty minutes is doable with batteries.
And in a flight school environment, airplanes return to the home base after such a mission. There they can be recharged. Like this:
We will develop the airplane and the charging infrastructure for flight schools and FBOs.
The next step will be an airplane with electric motor, batteries and range extender. What we call Hybrid on our roads. This one will have a range similar to today’s piston engine aircraft but will be much less polluting the planet.
This is not yet the ideal solution. But a big step forward and a thousand times better than doing nothing.
Very nice to see a company that’s thinking about this. We are certainly seeing a transition taking hold in the auto industry that has the potential to compress the time line of significant battery technology improvements. Additionally, the cost efficiencies of running electric vs gas aircraft will be a powerful economic catalyst in the training market. Now seems like the optimal time to figure out the infrastructure piece and position for the inevitable rapid improvements in battery technologies. I’ll be following this MS-1 project closely.
The further development of drive systems in all directions is overdue. We need viable alternatives worldwide. I’m not talking about reducing CO2, that’s a different discussion. Rather, progress in one area has always been a signpost for other areas. And independence from fossil fuels makes sense for many reasons. That MySky is tackling the issue with hydrogen as a target is extremely sensible and courageous. It will determine the future.
Super cool to see this kind of ingenuity. I’m excited to see where this project takes off!
Electric is the no longer the future! It’s ready and needed now to curb co2 emissions on the planet!
It seems like this maybe a more affordable barrier-of-entry for folks interested in learning how to fly all the way up to being an aircraft owner. Success through simplicity in the way the aircraft is charged, the flight characteristics and also ability to share the experience, it appears this is not the typical, cumbersome, fbo/flight-school trainer. Cant wait to fly one!!
I would love to see an all-electric or hydrogen fleet in a flight school one day, and I hope you can pave the way! You are definitely in a good location for testing the concept with so many flight schools around in Florida. I remember doing aircraft noise studies for some airports back in the day. Electric planes could undoubtedly reduce the number of noise complaints from people living near airports in addition to the reduced carbon impact. I hope to fly one of these planes someday!
Very exciting to see this technology evolve. Basically there has not been any major breakthrough in aviation since the last 50-60 years. Current engines are based on 60 year old technology. This could definitely be the future.