Those monsters

After reading the article, it seems like they're only refitting the beavers that have already been ruined with the PT6. And, they said it would take an hour of charge per hour of flight, but that will get better with new battery tech.

I wonder if the eBeaver will be flown by the senior pilots, or if the junior pilots will?
 
Will never see the light of day. But will make a few people rich along the way to failure.
 
Salty said:
Will never see the light of day. But will make a few people rich along the way to failure.
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I fully expect it to see the light of day. 'It' as in one plane. Commercial success? Or even an STC approval for commercial passenger flight? That's another story. But electrification will happen, hopefully in my lifetime.
 
I've flown on them a couple of times. That actually is a good place to start electric planes, if the numbers mentioned about the recharge time is correct. One flight I took was a little longer than 30 minutes (Whistler to Vancouver), but the time between flights was more than an hour. As stated, some of the other flights are 30 minutes (or less).
 
I bet that takes more than a 14 gauge extension cord? o_O
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I've flown on them a couple of times. That actually is a good place to start electric planes, if the numbers mentioned about the recharge time is correct. One flight I took was a little longer than 30 minutes (Whistler to Vancouver), but the time between flights was more than an hour. As stated, some of the other flights are 30 minutes (or less).
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Harbour Air is a fantastic operator... and they are all about going green. I agree with you... this model would be a good place to start. My question is how do you stay charged. This operation is a turn and burn model, with flights leaving every hour, and turning around to come back. That is how they do well. How can you charge an airplane and continue this?
 
TipTanks said:
Harbour Air is a fantastic operator... and they are all about going green. I agree with you... this model would be a good place to start. My question is how do you stay charged. This operation is a turn and burn model, with flights leaving every hour, and turning around to come back. That is how they do well. How can you charge an airplane and continue this?
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I suspect that's something they've figured out, at least partially. I imagine the initial aircraft would be used on a route with a fairly decent turn time to allow time to charge.
 
I wonder about reserves. I would think you would need the same minimum reserves as you would with gas or jet fuel planes.
 
Reminds me of those sci-fi movies where vintage cars are all electric. Just rewatched In Time and they had "electric" 70's Chargers (appropriate) and an "electric" XKE.
 
TipTanks said:
Harbour Air is a fantastic operator... and they are all about going green. I agree with you... this model would be a good place to start. My question is how do you stay charged. This operation is a turn and burn model, with flights leaving every hour, and turning around to come back. That is how they do well. How can you charge an airplane and continue this?
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It probably depends on the routes. The routes I flew on had slower turnaround, so it was about an hour between landing and the departure.
 
But, But, But they are going to have a network of superchargers where you can talk with other pilots that don't shower and smell like patchouli while waiting for a plug to free up!
 
Hmm, our local airport is trying to get air service to anywhere, looks like an electric beaver could just about manage it.
 
I think the ticket to any of these electric commuter planes is going to be to have a removable battery that can be charged at the terminal, and a new fully charged battery swapped in for the flight. No different than filling up the fuel tank really!
 
Just like the lipos in my RC planes...why the heck would they permanently mount them? 4 packs would keep me flying non-stop, RC wise. I see the battery packs being a slide in a slide in and out compartment. Maybe even jettison-able. :O (for the getoffmylawn and thatllneverlast types that think batteries are dangerous-er than 100LL)
 
The Beaver came with the 450 HP Wasp Jr. I know they are specing a 750 HP motor but figure 300 HP average over the trip. 300 HP x .746 kW/HP = 223 kW or 223 kWh for their stated endurance. For the Tesla S, "90kWh pack has 7,616 cells; battery weighs 540kg (1,200 lb)", so we are looking at about a 3000 lb battery pack.
 
The part none of this scheme mentions is, Li-Ion batteries work a lot worse in the winter time. As much as 30-35% worse. If this operation was in Hawaii with the same temps all year round, the it would make sense but the Pacific Northwest can get cold. Maybe their 30 minutes of flight with 30 minutes of reserve is worst case based on winter temperatures, but I seriously doubt it.

I have no doubt a demonstrator plane will be built and it will fly wonderfully and get a lot of press and it's 15 minutes of fame, but I suspect when the real world numbers come in, they will go into a holding pattern, waiting for better batteries once again. I hope they find them though, because I would convert my plane, or trade it in a heart beat for an electric version.
 
I’ve flown with lots of guys who worked radials, and they are all very glad to be in turbine equipment. Radials are losing their commercial viability hence why operators are starting to fork over 7 figure numbers to convert them. It’s unfortunate, and I love the sound of radials, but it’s just business. There’s a reason there aren’t any recip Otters flying around any more. It’s hard to argue with 30gph in a recip beaver burning 100LL at $5/gal vs 45 gph @$2/gal along with a much higher dispatch reliability rate due to the MUCH lower amount of maintenance.

I also definitely see a market for the electric beavers as the technology improves - they will need to figure out a way to charge them quicker but I could see them being very popular with sightseeing companies, of which there are many.
 
DavidWhite said:
I also definitely see a market for the electric beavers as the technology improves - they will need to figure out a way to charge them quicker but I could see them being very popular with sightseeing companies, of which there are many.
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Yes there are. Here in my area there is an operator that runs sight seeing in a Beaver on floats in San Francisco Bay. It would be a huge hit here if they could make it work out.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
It probably depends on the routes. The routes I flew on had slower turnaround, so it was about an hour between landing and the departure.
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Yes. Their bread and butter is Vancouver Harbour to Victoria and Nanaimo. Business commuters.. Those are turn and burn routes.
 
CharlieK said:
Going green is good! Fire up those coal, oil, and gas power plants to make more of that green electricity!
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95% of BC's electricity is generated from renewables. The rest is from biomass. Coal based power generation has been eliminated in Ontario and Quebec. Makes greener sense than say, the US east of the Mississippi.
 
Eric Stoltz said:
95% of BC's electricity is generated from renewables. The rest is from biomass. Coal based power generation has been eliminated in Ontario and Quebec. Makes greener sense than say, the US east of the Mississippi.
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That's a great thought if you're in British Columbia where you have thousands of acres of unused land that you can dedicate to storing water and enough elevation change to make hydro power profitable, but here in the flat lands, every foot of water takes up a lot of land space which is used for ag production. Somebody's got to feed the world.
 
Brad Smith said:
Making these planes electric with a horde of high-tech batteries will give an inflight electrical fire a whole new level of excitement.
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As I like to tell people, there's a lot more energy in your Taurus's fuel tank than a Tesla's batteries.
 
Eric Stoltz said:
95% of BC's electricity is generated from renewables. The rest is from biomass. Coal based power generation has been eliminated in Ontario and Quebec. Makes greener sense than say, the US east of the Mississippi.
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Yeah, kill that fish migration, and grind up some raptors.
 
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