Cleo, you know that your graphics and editing is superb. But they aren't my favorite part of your videos. You have such a gift in framing these conversations and giving the audience enough context to feel both educated and hopeful. I now CARE about electric plans, something that was invisible to me, after just 10 minutes, which is WILD. Love watching your videos, appreciate all the work it takes to do them.
@@CleoAbram short haul flights will be lost by fast trains. like in china. so electric planes for short flights of 200-1500 km are not very useful. because there are electric trains that are better because they don't need batteries. batteries mined from poor countries whose resources are stolen from western countries
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa that is also a question of population density and topography. As an example, Norway made the choice in the 60’s to develop a network of short runway airports, instead of motorways for the northern and western part of the country. Now there’s quite a bit of focus on electric airplanes.
I work in this industry and know I want to work on these types of aircraft. Thanks for bringing this to the public stage in an awesome optimistic way. We need more coverage like this to show the public how close the world is to a better vision. Love your show!
thank you Venkat! it's so cool you feel that way. sometimes I imagine Huge If True as a menu of options for hopeful people to get involved with - very excited you're interested in these planes.
@@CleoAbram short haul flights will be lost by fast trains. like in china. so electric planes for short flights of 200-1500 km are not very useful. because there are electric trains that are better because they don't need batteries. batteries mined from poor countries whose resources are stolen from western countries
@@CleoAbramI've been a fan but am convinced now that you've fallen for ghe long-termist effective altruism perspective , trivializing the threat of climate-change with these hopium presentations. Innovation and consumption won't save us. Electric airplanes aren't changing much of anything. Stop trivializing the threat, please!
too bad she doesn't realize that global warming from human CO2 is a hoax, and that electric vehicles are all charged using regular coal or oil. AND the amount of diesel fuel burned to mine the lithium for the batteries that only last 10 years far exceeds anything a gas engine would burn, and that's if CO2 actually mattered in "climate change"
yeah, the news likes to focus on the negative, because it sells better, but what we actually want is to focus on solutions if we want to have a better future.
Electric planes have no foreseeable path to decarbonizing commercial flight in a meaningful way. The video is forced to admit it at multiple instances. Falling for wishful and beyond optimistic presentations is not the answer to the depressing reality of climate change. It just fuels further apathy.
@@snizamithank you for commenting. I was already suspicious at one minute in and then looked up the percentage of el.vehicles and "we" already wreak havoc on the planet with lithium extraction so...driving and travelling less should be way more effective in terms of sustainability than any "turn the buck faster" scheme.
My grandmother was about 10 years old when the Wright bros flew for the first time. She was 70-something when men landed on the moon. No reason we didn't have a similar progress trajectory in the 60 years after that, but we arguably didn't - perhaps there has been almost as much improvement 🤷♂ but almost for sure we are back on track now. Your explanations Cleo are both concise and clear and you address the issues without being patronising. Or umming and aahhing, which is *_such_* a big thing in my book. Well done and thank you 😁
You are mostly correct, but it did not have that much to do with space flight. I used to be in the plane business. It’s a combination of There are problems with lawsuits particular to aviation, the FAA is a pretty bad agency, and the destruction of airports all around the country has been devastating. In the late nineties, it seemed the industry was looking to rebound, but several problems, mostly government caused, instead destroyed the industry almost completely. These electric plane projects are the best hope. Cross your fingers.
So, as a paramedic, I have to point out the obvious use of these eVTOLs as air ambulances. VTOL is an amazing benefit, plus they'll be quieter, and they won't stink. We could start using these now. That's pretty exciting to me. They'll help us help more people.
unfortunately with the best lithium-ion batteries around you'll on get typically between 10 and 15 minutes flight endurance. Any VTOL is horrifyingly energy hungry. This compares with between 30 and 60 minutes for a conventional plane powered by batteries. The power/energy to weight ratio of lithium-ion simply isn't up to the task. I expect plenty of e-VTOL companies to fold in the next year or two as this insuperable obstacle finally dawns on them.
On a related note, I believe one of the other uses they are looking at is point-to-point organ transplant between hospitals. And a few other things: I work very close to the Burlington airport and I've seen this thing buzzing around a few times. It really is very quiet. Part of the trick is that once it's airborne the vertical rotors shut down and it flies like a normal plane with a single prop at the back. Another thing they're doing that wasn't covered here is making the battery packs hot-swappable. So, they will have a base of operations at the airport, come in for a landing and be able to just swap out the depleted batteries for fully charged ones and then work on recharging the old ones. This allows for fast turn-around times, but from what I understand charging a Lithium-Ion battery is also better for the life of the battery.
I know it's a joke but it also demonstrates how people do not understand quantities. TS Eras tour planes accounted for 0.0000002857% of total emissions in that given year. That means it would need to be multiplied by 35 000 000 to even approach 1%. The media wants you to get angry at Taylor Swift while they continue to support car culture and unsustainable farming and beef consumption which alone is responsible for 15% of total global emissions. If every family in the west would eat 1 less serving of beef per week that would amount to reducing global emissions by 3% which, by far, would be the greatest reduction of emissions in history.
@@TheTransitmtl it was indeed a joke. But she does use her planes for far more than tours, and you shouldn't compare it to the total global emissions. You should instead compare it to the average person in the world, and see how many times a single individual is over that average.
I struggle with a few mental illnesses. I'm currently in a depressive episode. I just wanted to say how much watching these videos help make me feel hopeful. Thank you for that.
Thanks fake poster; she will, she's connected to the global climate scam so they'll be making more videos that she can pretend to make with that stupid smile of hers.
@@slofty yeah there's a channel made by some fear monger two bit doctor named John Campbell who literally spun off a positive news of reduction in lethality in mice from 100% to 80% by portraying it as "the gall of an evil group of scientists doing evil gain of function research and creating a new virus" And as always laymen couldn't tell the difference though i don't blame them because the worst kinds of lies are those wrapped around selective partial truths I hate deceitful grifters and trp peddlers
Cleo, I just want to say that I'm amazed at how far you have come too. I've been following your work for about a year before you left Vox, and the content you've been putting out just keeps getting better. I'm learning new things each time. It also gives me hope that the seemingly intractable problems we face today are being chipped away every day by wonderful people and companies like Beta.
You managed to communicate complex topics like energy density and transport transformation effortlessly, clearly, simply, and you made it fun to boot. This video is a masterclass in communication and also a must-watch for those seeking to understand the revolution currently underway in electric aviation. Thank you for all the work that went into this video - it's outstanding on so many levels.
Just found your channel. I love it! The thing I appreciate the most isn't the information (which is interesting and informative), but your attitude. Your optimism is so nice to see. So many people are the opposite, and it can make a person feel dismayed about our future. So thank you. Keep that attitude and keep up the awesome work! :)
Great video. You really got a talent for carrying the conversation and engaging the audience. My only complaint is, at the end of the video I was left with a feeling of incompleteness, I was hoping for more info on what the company was planning to do, roadmaps, and some more technical info.
We tried electric airplanes at our airport, they have a flight school that uses mostly electric airplanes. The key is to figure out how to fly them despite their limitations. A flight school is exactly that! 45 minutes flight time is perfect for a lesson. When they can fly twice that, then we might find another use for those.
How is 45 minute flight time perfect for flight school? You need to do cross country flights and night flights which electric planes cannot accomplish .
Why should this be done at all? The planes are INSANELY expensive and the batteries need to be replaced often, which probably negates any environmental benefit that they provide.
@@PistonAvatarGuy when the aviation fuel costs 3 euros per liter and the plane requires 35 liters per hour it is a quite simple equation why electric is cheaper, even if you have to change battery
@@fredrikjohansson Not when the plane is tens/hundreds of thousands of Euros more expensive to buy, AND requires tens/hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of battery replacements every ~400 hours.
I live in Vermont and the fact that you actually went to Beta makes me *so happy.* They've been blowing up the local news lately; I love that they're getting wider attention.
I work in and love this industry! Currently at Pyka Aero we’re making and operating autonomous electric crop dusting aircraft which I believe is a perfect stepping stone towards the holy grail of short haul commuter aviation! Thank you for your amazing work!
Usually I don’t listen to someone talking about aviation explain aviation but, she seems to grasp a lot of problems that most people don’t understand, good video
Your show is filled with so much joy. I love when you are in the middle of filming and you just stop to smile at the camera. You are so ecstatic at sharing this content.
Great video! The one bit I’d like to add is that battery density and weight is only part of the equation. The efficiency of electric motors is a huge part of why EVs can travel as far as they do even if batteries don’t contain the same energy density as gasoline. In cars, gasoline engines are only about 36% efficient while electric motors are about 98% efficient. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same sort of ratio were true in airplanes!
Good observation! We have to keep in mind that her video's are targeting the mainstream audience without any knowledge of aviation and electrics so it's not going too deep.
It's amazing what technological breakthroughs can happen in a lifetime. My great-grandfather was born in 1875, and he died in 1962. The first car was invented in 1886, and the first human in space was in 1961. Therefore, within my great-grandfather’s lifetime, humans went from riding horses to flying a rocket into space. My grandson just turned one; I wonder what technological advancements will occur within his lifetime.
As a person with severe ADHD, your videos are perfect for me to go into full hyperfocus mode and get lost in an increadibly complicated, yet amazing concept. Oh, also to do nothing that I actually need to do:) I know, it doesn't sound a good thing; but, this is the greatest compliment I can possible give to a creator:)
Hey Cleo! I'm a senior aeronautical engineer and have a content idea for you. I would LOVE to see you shine some light on the Otto Aviation Celera (no I don't work for them, I work for Sikorsky). There is a LOT under the surface with this thing, because not only is it incredibly efficient (more on that later) and drastically cheaper to operate, but the size combination with the speed means you could potentially use your local small airports to be able to fly in/out of, so quicker/smaller security. And because of THAT it would be less layovers! Now about that efficiency: all of this is basically enabled by a really beautiful part if aerodynamics known as laminar flow. Lots more to explain there but if we could actually pull of laminar flow production aircraft as they propose it would MASSIVELY impact the way you and I get around. Cheers, let me know if you want to talk about it!
High speed rail is also taking out a lot of shorter haul aviation. Look at Europe. For example, as part of its COVID bailout , the French Government ordered Air France to stop competing with SNCF's TGVs and instead just sell seats on those TGVs for domestic travel instead of offering as many domestic flights.
600 miles is still a long way to fly in an electic plane. On top of that they become more inefficiënt the longer you go and at some point synthetic or bio-based kerosine will be cheaper than the energy spend on charging and the time lost on the ground waiting to charge. Also for even shorter distances you probably should just take a car or a train. I think batteries have to improve quite a lot for electric planes to become feasible.
I know you don't want to work for like a big company, but your voice and face and brain are amazing! You need to be just teaching the entire world about this kind of stuff in a wide scale, I hope your channel continues to grow, you're someone we all need to see more of!
I am a student of a MSc in Aerospace engineering and I've recently taken a subject in which we talked about emissions. This comment is to say that there are existing plans made by ICAO and IATA to reach net zero emissions in aviation by 2050. On their plans, sustainable aviation fuel (this includes electricity, hydrogen cells, hydrogen as a combustible and biofuels) makes up for 65% of the reduction. Also, another fact is that in the last 45 years, there's been a 70% reduction in volumetric consumption of fuel per passenger per kilometer. Right now, to move one passenger (including luggage) 100km, 3L of fuel are needed while in the 1970s, 10L were needed for the same purpose.
I've loved this from her in the past but this is now just helping sell a deceptive 'innovate-and-consume' vision for (not) tackling climate change. It's deeply disappointing.
Clearly, Cleo, you are a genius. As I was watching this, specifically the part about building the battery pack, I immediately thought of spent nuclear rods at nuclear reactors. No doubt you know all too well that our best minds decided the best way to store those things is to truck them in some cases thousands of miles to a mountain!? So here's my question--are we going to have to find another mountain to store spent batteries that are used in aviation? I sure hope not
You're not completely wrong. Car batteries that are at 70% of their capacity are considered unusable and for planes I recon the limits are going to be even stricter. However, these batteries can still have a function in stationairy storage as peak backup or off-grid solutions where the increased weigh and volume ratio is not an issue.
Another potential for electric flight is fuel cells. You input a fuel like methane, run it through some catalysts at high temperature (1,000°ish) reforming the fuel into hydrogen, a small amount of CO2 (compared to burning fuels), and water. The cool thing about fuel cells, though, is that you can use biogas, which is renewably made and thus turns the fuel cell into a Net Zero emitter of carbon dioxide. If you needed some additional oomph with your power generation, you could store the hydrogen produced onboard the plane and burn it through a generator (which emits only water as exhaust) to generate more power for takeoff. One of the issues with Li-Ion cells is, well, the lithium. Its mining process isn't exactly environmentally friendly (or humanly friendly if you look at some of the conditions of lithium mines in other countries). Plus you have to recharge these cells, and odds are that's going to, at least partially, come from CO2 emitters like coal or natural gas power plants. Renewables like solar and wind aren't quite there yet. With a fuel cell, you can capture the methane from, say, cattle farming, and then after a little cleaning of the gas, plug it directly into a plane. You could say it's cow-fart-powered-flight (CFPF)... lol. Additionally, we can extract methane from many other processes as well. Vegetable oil recycling, exhaust capture at gasoline production facilities or oil rigs, natural product degradation like wood or food scraps... I mean, hell, we can even pull CO2 out of the air itself and turn it back into fuel if we wanted to. We can also produce it via algae through the same process as we process fossil fuel oil. Plus there's the lifetime of the fuel cell. I did a quick search and it seems like it's about 5000 hours, or a little under 7 months of non-stop flying, 24 hours a day. If a plane travels for 3,500 hours in a typical year, that's a year and 5 months. After that, you can replace the catalysts (which can be recycled) with a new set and you'd be good for another year and a half. Since you're running off of electricity, the motors used will typically last a little longer than traditional plane engines, will be lighter, and won't require as much maintenance. When you consider the fuel consumption of a typical 747 (1gal/sec), then you could expect a single plane to burn roughly 31.5million gallons of fuel in a year. Imagine NOT burning all that fuel? There are a couple of airplane companies (like Airbus) which are unveiling hydrogen fuel cell planes. I think methane fuel cells would be a better alternative though, if I'm being honest. Methane is a lot easier to carry and produce.
I love the idea of battery-powered aircraft for short-distance flights, but I really don't love the idea of battery-operated drones/planes for deliveries within cities. The "catastrophic failure" potential is so much higher since the planes may be flying over homes or buildings and could just fall out of the sky. I understand that turbine-powered planes in their current iteration are the safest per mile transport, but that isn't necessarily true for battery operated versions. Also, the noise. Drones are super loud because they have to displace so much air. If we had even bigger ones flying around cities, it would be so obnoxious.
The only reason that airplanes are having a high score on safety is the training of the people that operate those. Imagine now a world were just as much people are flying easy to operate planes as we have people driving a car these days: What now is just an anyoing fender bender will then be a fatal crash at altitude.
This is all fascinating, but aren't trains a better replacement for short haul flights? You're not going to replace a trans Atlantic flight any time soon, but for Paris to Warsaw or Phoenix to Sacramento a high speed train is a much better option. No batteries required. No need to lift any mass in the air. Much more efficient.
Electric planes are great, but we've still got a ways to go because things need to be scaled up quite a bit more for it to be viable. For example, take delivery and drones. Sure, a single drone can work well for deliveries to remote locations, but in a more urban area, and especially cities, you'd need thousands of drones just to cover a couple of miles of area. And it'd also mean the time required from people for each delivery is 10x. Just think about it, it takes 30 seconds at most to load each package into the truck and 1 minute at most for the driver to deliver each package with, 2 to 5 minutes between each stop. Compare that with 1 minute to take a package out to load the drone, 10 to 20 minutes for it to fly to the customer's house, 5 minutes for it to land, the customer to come out, get the package and then for the drone to take off again, and then 10 more minutes back to the warehouse for the next package. And that's for a SINGLE customer's package out of the hundreds that a single truck serves currently. And a warehouse has hundreds of trucks, so that's 10 or 20k drones at the current scale? The same thing is true for passenger planes. One plane taking 20-50 people vs 20 planes taking 20-40 people means your cost is massive and the CO2 created in building 20x more planes is insane. That's NOT to say we shouldn't be working on it and NOT to say it won't happen. Because we should and it will. It's just not "here" yet. We just need another 10 or 20 years though.
Really insightful when you started zooming in on CO2 emissions and how we can chip away at them. Another interesting way is to eliminate first class flights… the larger the seats the more CO2 per person-mile traveled. Large penalties for flights that are not full, taxes on jet fuel (there are none) that go into a fund to build public transport (like trains) for distances covered by short-haul flights.
I remember hearing from Engineering Explained that a lot of the smaller planes require leaded gas too and people living downwind of small airports are just getting lead-poisioning by breathing. Maybe electric planes are help with that too.
They should make charging time a non-issue for commercial aircraft by just swapping in a fully charged battery between flights. I realize those batteries are massive, but they can make equipment to support this on the runway.
Love it. I think we'll be seeing major battery changes in the next few years, there's a lot of different patents and companies bidding to bring new battery tech to the market relatively soon, and some of the new batteries are looking at a 30% improvement (potentially) in gravimetric energy density (so rather than be 34 times heavier for the equivalent power storage, they'll be more like 24 times heavier - which will potentially allow more range).
If there is a thing that shouldn't ever be electric is an airplane. A glider with electric takeoff propulsion, fine. An airplane entirely dependent on electricity? No thank you. With that said, great work on this! very informative and well presented.
Those VTOL planes look awesome! They also look like they're very easy to learn to fly! I took 2 years of flying lessons in a 1969 Piper Cherokee and I just barely got it down at the end. Based on what I've seen in this video, I'm pretty sure I could learn to fly this VTOL in just a month or so. Perhaps VTOL aircraft will become the flying cars we've all been dreaming about since the Jetsons!
The real answer to deal with emissions from aviation doesn't depend on electric aircrafts. First and foremost is reduction in flight volume. That could mean having a video call instead of going on a business trip or not going on vacation in far away places, but also more painful adjustments like not getting to see your family as often. Next up is replacement. In the best case scenario this could mean a similarly fast high speed train, but might also mean a more lengthy trip on board of an electric bus or slower train. This is were we cross the line into uncharted territory, i.e. solutions that don't exist right now. The most promising looking one right now is probably e-fuels. Failing that direct-air carbon capture is our last line of defense. Notice that all of these include massive sacrifices, be it in not being able to go, in price, comfort or speed. Do not assume that we can innovate ourselves out of the problem. These necessary sacrifices can't be made by voluntary individuals but only collectively. This is why we need legislation that put's the cost of its environmental destruction on the aviation industry, provides a clear timeline for the industry to exist fossil fuels, and a comprehensive effort to build out low emission alternatives like rail transport.
I've just recently found your channel and am enjoying to binge all the videos. Also i love the finishing note of this one. It really carried such a hopeful vibe, i smiled at your words ✨
Vermont!....now you're talking. That's my state. Hope you loved it. I first saw the Beta designs at the Vermont Air National Guard open house event 2022. Seems to me the crux in the VTOL air taxi service is that battery energy density (those 2170 form-factor cells) are still sub-optimal by about 130wH/kg. Ideally you'd want to be over 400wH/kg. We're getting closer....
Few months ago i was thinking about why airplanes werent electric yet and when it would be possible and now one of my favourite journalists uploaded a video on it! So thank you for that!
Cleo Abram's video "How electric planes are changing flight" is a fascinating and informative look at the latest developments in electric aviation. The video does a great job of explaining the technology behind electric planes and the benefits they offer, such as lower emissions and cost savings. It also highlights some of the exciting new electric planes that are being developed, showcasing the potential of this innovative technology. Overall, I found the video to be both educational and engaging, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the future of flight.
From your video I infere that electric planes could have their own market: considering the limited range and cumbersome refuelling of cars, especially in mountain, and the limited size of electric planes, perhaps they will be used for intercity connection, like light airplanes or helicopters, but for a much more numerous audience: people will take electric planes to go straight to their destination, ignoring traffic jam and curvy steep roads, leaving most of the high skill of taking off, stability, checking air traffic, landing, to drone-like IA. Then using proximity transport to complete the trip (vertical landing area could be much closer to city centre than airports).
Part of the reason the oversized quadcopter drone is getting a lot of attention for passenger travel is the ease of adding an emergency parachute. The quadcopter's slow speed combined with its small rotors make deploying a parachute a lot easier and safer than in a helicopter.
Your writing is amazing. You make our ears eat up every word and keep us interested all the way through with your positive energy. Looking forward to your future projects.
I'm currently studying transportation engineering in school and am really excited to see this kind of stuff. Thank you for sharing this Cleo :D keep up the great work!
Coming from a 19 year old instrument rated private pilot and car enthusiast, one of the biggest things in aviation I have noticed is the lack of innovation or the extremely slow forward progress. An example of this is with the Cessna 172 which is now over a 60 year old platform that has not seen any major changes since it’s inception in 1956, really only the big change I can think of is fuel injection but that’s really it. Still the same airframe and still the same big inefficient engine. Comparison, Lycoming IO-360 powering the 172 only produces 180hp and a similarly sized coyote V8 out of a mustang produces 3 times the power. The electric aircraft are great for short range but for longer range, I feel that we need to drastically downsize engines, reduction gearboxes and constant speed props are also great tools. Diamond aircraft and Rotax engines are the furthest ahead I’d say. Anyways that’s my two cents on aviation.
The big issue with electric is as the battery depletes, the output voltage decreases. The amount of potential energy in a fuel is always the same, so you have the same amount of power available to you even when running on fumes. With electric that's not the case.
If you want to lower emissions in US for transportation under 1000 miles - build more railroads, use electric trains. Shinkansen et cetera. All aerial transportation are less effective then trains.
Okay, so how are we charging those batteries? As a science, math & engineering teacher, confronting excited students with these sorts of tough questions is something I personally struggle with. It's very much no fun being accused of driving a battery operated, limited-function, temperature-intolerant, coal-fired toxic waste mobile. Until we can build and charge electric vehicles responsibly enough to outweigh the variuos issues they're intended to solve, I think we should adopt the tortoise's mindset: slow and steady wins the race. Leaping and sprinting toward silly non-solutions risks a massive societal backlash. Doing so isn't only extremely poor engineering, but poor public policy as well. We must never mandate unrealistic goals no matter how badly we wish for a world filled with unicorns. If anything, such decisions are probably at least as likely to result in long-term opposition to innovation as to move the majority of us toward adoption. Real hurdles like the cost of entry, vehicle range, the safe disposal of wastes, vehicle & battery life, improved temperature tolerance and charging options are all serious concerns. Should all electric vehicles have hydrogen tanks and fuel cells to extend their operating range in bad situations? Making bad decisions because things are just plain "neato" is also huge*--and there isn't an "if" in sight. (*WELL KNOWN TRUTH with thousands of examples)
As always, and after all these years: Amazing video, Cleo.! I know you want to, so dont be afraid to drop a 21 mins video from time to time.! Love the 10+1 minute videos but you are followed by people who are not only here to burn 10 minutes and forget about what they saw in a couple of days... We are invested and 21 mins and follow-ups 6 months later and we all still be here.
Hey Cleo, I love this stuff! It really excites me, but there is one thing I couldn't stop thinking about during the video; what about the harmful effects and shortage of lithium ion batteries? 🤔
The most important thing that draws me to your videos is your optimism. I love the way you ended the video - even with all this chaos and negativity (looking at you Johnny!), maybe there is still hope 🙃
I love this video, MASSIVE changes don’t have to be as massive and instant as we all think. Cutting short flight emissions is a responsible, sustainable and conceivable change in the near future to better the world. Very cool
It’s such a delight whenever you upload new videos and shorts. You’re the best journalist on CZcams. I find myself caring about every new topics you introduce. Thank you for sharing this gift with the world! ❤
The problem why they don’t let anybody near those electric planes is the noise that they make. The are just incredibly loud, because they basically scaled up drones to the point where people fit in them. That’s why all Marketing videos (if they are not cgi) of similar planes have music over them and no real sound. There are some advancements in helicopters to reduce the noise by modeling rotor blades after owl feathers and I really hope this research is transferable.
That Beta aircraft is so cool! Looks like a giant drone, but with a cockpit, lol. Love how it looks (mostly) like a plane, but has helicopter-like controls (at least the one in the simulator did).
Planes like the old one you flew in are actually fabric covered metal frames, and I used to do restorations on the fabric. I also worked on engines on similar planes, as well as more modern ones (mostly a lot of oil changes, and disassembling engines for overhaul).
Your videos are just so informative and amazing. Your work is so vital., You should look into teaming up with Education science classes. You could really inspire so many kids!! ❤❤❤
With fusion power, we can make jet fuel out of hydrogen from seawater and CO2 from air or seawater. It's regular fuel, but carbon neutral, Gasoline and jet fuel are great batteries. :-)
Cleo, you know that your graphics and editing is superb. But they aren't my favorite part of your videos. You have such a gift in framing these conversations and giving the audience enough context to feel both educated and hopeful. I now CARE about electric plans, something that was invisible to me, after just 10 minutes, which is WILD. Love watching your videos, appreciate all the work it takes to do them.
thank you! I really appreciate you saying that, because it’s exactly what I most hope to do in every video
And the Closing statement 10:25 chef's kiss.
@@CleoAbram short haul flights will be lost by fast trains. like in china. so electric planes for short flights of 200-1500 km are not very useful. because there are electric trains that are better because they don't need batteries. batteries mined from poor countries whose resources are stolen from western countries
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa that is also a question of population density and topography. As an example, Norway made the choice in the 60’s to develop a network of short runway airports, instead of motorways for the northern and western part of the country. Now there’s quite a bit of focus on electric airplanes.
@@CleoAbram where is build a nuclear fusion reactor part 2 ?
I work in this industry and know I want to work on these types of aircraft. Thanks for bringing this to the public stage in an awesome optimistic way. We need more coverage like this to show the public how close the world is to a better vision. Love your show!
thank you Venkat! it's so cool you feel that way. sometimes I imagine Huge If True as a menu of options for hopeful people to get involved with - very excited you're interested in these planes.
@@CleoAbram short haul flights will be lost by fast trains. like in china. so electric planes for short flights of 200-1500 km are not very useful. because there are electric trains that are better because they don't need batteries. batteries mined from poor countries whose resources are stolen from western countries
@@CleoAbramI've been a fan but am convinced now that you've fallen for ghe long-termist effective altruism perspective , trivializing the threat of climate-change with these hopium presentations. Innovation and consumption won't save us. Electric airplanes aren't changing much of anything. Stop trivializing the threat, please!
@@snizami Stop spreading hate, please!
too bad she doesn't realize that global warming from human CO2 is a hoax, and that electric vehicles are all charged using regular coal or oil. AND the amount of diesel fuel burned to mine the lithium for the batteries that only last 10 years far exceeds anything a gas engine would burn, and that's if CO2 actually mattered in "climate change"
I love your positive perspective. At times we lose that balance with what we're seeing on the news. You're doing a great job
yeah, the news likes to focus on the negative, because it sells better, but what we actually want is to focus on solutions if we want to have a better future.
Electric planes have no foreseeable path to decarbonizing commercial flight in a meaningful way. The video is forced to admit it at multiple instances. Falling for wishful and beyond optimistic presentations is not the answer to the depressing reality of climate change. It just fuels further apathy.
@@snizamithank you for commenting. I was already suspicious at one minute in and then looked up the percentage of el.vehicles and "we" already wreak havoc on the planet with lithium extraction so...driving and travelling less should be way more effective in terms of sustainability than any "turn the buck faster" scheme.
My grandmother was about 10 years old when the Wright bros flew for the first time. She was 70-something when men landed on the moon. No reason we didn't have a similar progress trajectory in the 60 years after that, but we arguably didn't - perhaps there has been almost as much improvement 🤷♂ but almost for sure we are back on track now.
Your explanations Cleo are both concise and clear and you address the issues without being patronising. Or umming and aahhing, which is *_such_* a big thing in my book. Well done and thank you 😁
You are mostly correct, but it did not have that much to do with space flight. I used to be in the plane business. It’s a combination of There are problems with lawsuits particular to aviation, the FAA is a pretty bad agency, and the destruction of airports all around the country has been devastating. In the late nineties, it seemed the industry was looking to rebound, but several problems, mostly government caused, instead destroyed the industry almost completely.
These electric plane projects are the best hope. Cross your fingers.
So, as a paramedic, I have to point out the obvious use of these eVTOLs as air ambulances. VTOL is an amazing benefit, plus they'll be quieter, and they won't stink. We could start using these now. That's pretty exciting to me. They'll help us help more people.
Yeah the noise of rescue helicopters are really annoying
unfortunately with the best lithium-ion batteries around you'll on get typically between 10 and 15 minutes flight endurance. Any VTOL is horrifyingly energy hungry. This compares with between 30 and 60 minutes for a conventional plane powered by batteries. The power/energy to weight ratio of lithium-ion simply isn't up to the task. I expect plenty of e-VTOL companies to fold in the next year or two as this insuperable obstacle finally dawns on them.
@@Tom_McMurtry The noise is largely caused by the rotor blades, NOT the engine !
On a related note, I believe one of the other uses they are looking at is point-to-point organ transplant between hospitals.
And a few other things:
I work very close to the Burlington airport and I've seen this thing buzzing around a few times. It really is very quiet. Part of the trick is that once it's airborne the vertical rotors shut down and it flies like a normal plane with a single prop at the back.
Another thing they're doing that wasn't covered here is making the battery packs hot-swappable. So, they will have a base of operations at the airport, come in for a landing and be able to just swap out the depleted batteries for fully charged ones and then work on recharging the old ones. This allows for fast turn-around times, but from what I understand charging a Lithium-Ion battery is also better for the life of the battery.
@@grahamstevenson1740 They report 250 miles / 400 km range and 55+ minutes flight time...
Please give one of these to Taylor Swift, that alone will halve current global emissions.
I know it's a joke but it also demonstrates how people do not understand quantities. TS Eras tour planes accounted for 0.0000002857% of total emissions in that given year. That means it would need to be multiplied by 35 000 000 to even approach 1%.
The media wants you to get angry at Taylor Swift while they continue to support car culture and unsustainable farming and beef consumption which alone is responsible for 15% of total global emissions. If every family in the west would eat 1 less serving of beef per week that would amount to reducing global emissions by 3% which, by far, would be the greatest reduction of emissions in history.
@@TheTransitmtl it was indeed a joke. But she does use her planes for far more than tours, and you shouldn't compare it to the total global emissions. You should instead compare it to the average person in the world, and see how many times a single individual is over that average.
@@TheTransitmtl Stop defending Taylor, she is one person you cant compare it to overall emissions😂
I struggle with a few mental illnesses. I'm currently in a depressive episode. I just wanted to say how much watching these videos help make me feel hopeful. Thank you for that.
How are you doing bro?
I hope that you will feel better and dont forget that there are people that care about you. Stay strong and safe!
This video is fun and entertaining! Wish Cleo had more content
working on it! much more in the works :)
Look at harbour air tours in electric float planes! :)
Thanks fake poster; she will, she's connected to the global climate scam so they'll be making more videos that she can pretend to make with that stupid smile of hers.
How she only has 250k subs is a mystery to me. Consistently some of the best content out there. Keep up the great work!
just the sad reality of this word.
The reason is that her channel is new.
@@omarllama yeah she started uploading only few months ago
anti-medicine outrage gets all the attention and is very profitable these days. Try not to go have a drink after you read that.
@@slofty yeah there's a channel made by some fear monger two bit doctor named John Campbell who literally spun off a positive news of reduction in lethality in mice from 100% to 80% by portraying it as "the gall of an evil group of scientists doing evil gain of function research and creating a new virus"
And as always laymen couldn't tell the difference though i don't blame them because the worst kinds of lies are those wrapped around selective partial truths
I hate deceitful grifters and trp peddlers
Cleo, I just want to say that I'm amazed at how far you have come too. I've been following your work for about a year before you left Vox, and the content you've been putting out just keeps getting better. I'm learning new things each time. It also gives me hope that the seemingly intractable problems we face today are being chipped away every day by wonderful people and companies like Beta.
IDK how to express how much joy your channel brings me. thank you. you've quite literally gotten me out of some really dark places.
You managed to communicate complex topics like energy density and transport transformation effortlessly, clearly, simply, and you made it fun to boot. This video is a masterclass in communication and also a must-watch for those seeking to understand the revolution currently underway in electric aviation. Thank you for all the work that went into this video - it's outstanding on so many levels.
Just found your channel. I love it!
The thing I appreciate the most isn't the information (which is interesting and informative), but your attitude. Your optimism is so nice to see. So many people are the opposite, and it can make a person feel dismayed about our future.
So thank you. Keep that attitude and keep up the awesome work! :)
Great video. You really got a talent for carrying the conversation and engaging the audience. My only complaint is, at the end of the video I was left with a feeling of incompleteness, I was hoping for more info on what the company was planning to do, roadmaps, and some more technical info.
We tried electric airplanes at our airport, they have a flight school that uses mostly electric airplanes. The key is to figure out how to fly them despite their limitations. A flight school is exactly that! 45 minutes flight time is perfect for a lesson. When they can fly twice that, then we might find another use for those.
How is 45 minute flight time perfect for flight school? You need to do cross country flights and night flights which electric planes cannot accomplish .
@@poochie5543 they have a new pa28 for those flights, so it’s not 100% electric yet
Why should this be done at all? The planes are INSANELY expensive and the batteries need to be replaced often, which probably negates any environmental benefit that they provide.
@@PistonAvatarGuy when the aviation fuel costs 3 euros per liter and the plane requires 35 liters per hour it is a quite simple equation why electric is cheaper, even if you have to change battery
@@fredrikjohansson Not when the plane is tens/hundreds of thousands of Euros more expensive to buy, AND requires tens/hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of battery replacements every ~400 hours.
I live in Vermont and the fact that you actually went to Beta makes me *so happy.* They've been blowing up the local news lately; I love that they're getting wider attention.
I work in and love this industry! Currently at Pyka Aero we’re making and operating autonomous electric crop dusting aircraft which I believe is a perfect stepping stone towards the holy grail of short haul commuter aviation! Thank you for your amazing work!
Usually I don’t listen to someone talking about aviation explain aviation but, she seems to grasp a lot of problems that most people don’t understand, good video
Your show is filled with so much joy. I love when you are in the middle of filming and you just stop to smile at the camera. You are so ecstatic at sharing this content.
Great video! The one bit I’d like to add is that battery density and weight is only part of the equation. The efficiency of electric motors is a huge part of why EVs can travel as far as they do even if batteries don’t contain the same energy density as gasoline.
In cars, gasoline engines are only about 36% efficient while electric motors are about 98% efficient. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same sort of ratio were true in airplanes!
Good observation! We have to keep in mind that her video's are targeting the mainstream audience without any knowledge of aviation and electrics so it's not going too deep.
It's amazing what technological breakthroughs can happen in a lifetime. My great-grandfather was born in 1875, and he died in 1962. The first car was invented in 1886, and the first human in space was in 1961. Therefore, within my great-grandfather’s lifetime, humans went from riding horses to flying a rocket into space. My grandson just turned one; I wonder what technological advancements will occur within his lifetime.
Optimism is my favorite type of content ♥
As a person with severe ADHD, your videos are perfect for me to go into full hyperfocus mode and get lost in an increadibly complicated, yet amazing concept. Oh, also to do nothing that I actually need to do:) I know, it doesn't sound a good thing; but, this is the greatest compliment I can possible give to a creator:)
Hey Cleo! I'm a senior aeronautical engineer and have a content idea for you. I would LOVE to see you shine some light on the Otto Aviation Celera (no I don't work for them, I work for Sikorsky). There is a LOT under the surface with this thing, because not only is it incredibly efficient (more on that later) and drastically cheaper to operate, but the size combination with the speed means you could potentially use your local small airports to be able to fly in/out of, so quicker/smaller security. And because of THAT it would be less layovers! Now about that efficiency: all of this is basically enabled by a really beautiful part if aerodynamics known as laminar flow. Lots more to explain there but if we could actually pull of laminar flow production aircraft as they propose it would MASSIVELY impact the way you and I get around. Cheers, let me know if you want to talk about it!
High speed rail is also taking out a lot of shorter haul aviation. Look at Europe. For example, as part of its COVID bailout , the French Government ordered Air France to stop competing with SNCF's TGVs and instead just sell seats on those TGVs for domestic travel instead of offering as many domestic flights.
Did you know as fossil fuel planes travel? They become more efficient and they are most efficient just before they land.
600 miles is still a long way to fly in an electic plane. On top of that they become more inefficiënt the longer you go and at some point synthetic or bio-based kerosine will be cheaper than the energy spend on charging and the time lost on the ground waiting to charge. Also for even shorter distances you probably should just take a car or a train. I think batteries have to improve quite a lot for electric planes to become feasible.
I know you don't want to work for like a big company, but your voice and face and brain are amazing! You need to be just teaching the entire world about this kind of stuff in a wide scale, I hope your channel continues to grow, you're someone we all need to see more of!
I am a student of a MSc in Aerospace engineering and I've recently taken a subject in which we talked about emissions. This comment is to say that there are existing plans made by ICAO and IATA to reach net zero emissions in aviation by 2050. On their plans, sustainable aviation fuel (this includes electricity, hydrogen cells, hydrogen as a combustible and biofuels) makes up for 65% of the reduction. Also, another fact is that in the last 45 years, there's been a 70% reduction in volumetric consumption of fuel per passenger per kilometer. Right now, to move one passenger (including luggage) 100km, 3L of fuel are needed while in the 1970s, 10L were needed for the same purpose.
The Amount of Effort Cleo puts into her videos is amazing . The energy ,positivity ,curiosity and her smile make these videos complete show-stopper
I've loved this from her in the past but this is now just helping sell a deceptive 'innovate-and-consume' vision for (not) tackling climate change. It's deeply disappointing.
Clearly, Cleo, you are a genius. As I was watching this, specifically the part about building the battery pack, I immediately thought of spent nuclear rods at nuclear reactors. No doubt you know all too well that our best minds decided the best way to store those things is to truck them in some cases thousands of miles to a mountain!? So here's my question--are we going to have to find another mountain to store spent batteries that are used in aviation? I sure hope not
You're not completely wrong. Car batteries that are at 70% of their capacity are considered unusable and for planes I recon the limits are going to be even stricter.
However, these batteries can still have a function in stationairy storage as peak backup or off-grid solutions where the increased weigh and volume ratio is not an issue.
I was lucky enough to see this plane in person in Springfield Ohio! It was insane seeing it up close
Another potential for electric flight is fuel cells. You input a fuel like methane, run it through some catalysts at high temperature (1,000°ish) reforming the fuel into hydrogen, a small amount of CO2 (compared to burning fuels), and water. The cool thing about fuel cells, though, is that you can use biogas, which is renewably made and thus turns the fuel cell into a Net Zero emitter of carbon dioxide. If you needed some additional oomph with your power generation, you could store the hydrogen produced onboard the plane and burn it through a generator (which emits only water as exhaust) to generate more power for takeoff.
One of the issues with Li-Ion cells is, well, the lithium. Its mining process isn't exactly environmentally friendly (or humanly friendly if you look at some of the conditions of lithium mines in other countries). Plus you have to recharge these cells, and odds are that's going to, at least partially, come from CO2 emitters like coal or natural gas power plants. Renewables like solar and wind aren't quite there yet. With a fuel cell, you can capture the methane from, say, cattle farming, and then after a little cleaning of the gas, plug it directly into a plane. You could say it's cow-fart-powered-flight (CFPF)... lol. Additionally, we can extract methane from many other processes as well. Vegetable oil recycling, exhaust capture at gasoline production facilities or oil rigs, natural product degradation like wood or food scraps... I mean, hell, we can even pull CO2 out of the air itself and turn it back into fuel if we wanted to. We can also produce it via algae through the same process as we process fossil fuel oil.
Plus there's the lifetime of the fuel cell. I did a quick search and it seems like it's about 5000 hours, or a little under 7 months of non-stop flying, 24 hours a day. If a plane travels for 3,500 hours in a typical year, that's a year and 5 months. After that, you can replace the catalysts (which can be recycled) with a new set and you'd be good for another year and a half. Since you're running off of electricity, the motors used will typically last a little longer than traditional plane engines, will be lighter, and won't require as much maintenance.
When you consider the fuel consumption of a typical 747 (1gal/sec), then you could expect a single plane to burn roughly 31.5million gallons of fuel in a year. Imagine NOT burning all that fuel? There are a couple of airplane companies (like Airbus) which are unveiling hydrogen fuel cell planes. I think methane fuel cells would be a better alternative though, if I'm being honest. Methane is a lot easier to carry and produce.
only channel where i don't even skip in video ads
I love the idea of battery-powered aircraft for short-distance flights, but I really don't love the idea of battery-operated drones/planes for deliveries within cities. The "catastrophic failure" potential is so much higher since the planes may be flying over homes or buildings and could just fall out of the sky. I understand that turbine-powered planes in their current iteration are the safest per mile transport, but that isn't necessarily true for battery operated versions. Also, the noise. Drones are super loud because they have to displace so much air. If we had even bigger ones flying around cities, it would be so obnoxious.
The only reason that airplanes are having a high score on safety is the training of the people that operate those. Imagine now a world were just as much people are flying easy to operate planes as we have people driving a car these days: What now is just an anyoing fender bender will then be a fatal crash at altitude.
I was also reading somewhere that Companies like Boeing ,Airbus and startups like ZeroAvia, Universal Hydrogen are pursuing hydrogen powered aircraft.
This is all fascinating, but aren't trains a better replacement for short haul flights?
You're not going to replace a trans Atlantic flight any time soon, but for Paris to Warsaw or Phoenix to Sacramento a high speed train is a much better option. No batteries required. No need to lift any mass in the air. Much more efficient.
I completely respect you as a person, a pilot and lover of science, but I still have to say: SUPER CUTIE
Electric planes are great, but we've still got a ways to go because things need to be scaled up quite a bit more for it to be viable. For example, take delivery and drones. Sure, a single drone can work well for deliveries to remote locations, but in a more urban area, and especially cities, you'd need thousands of drones just to cover a couple of miles of area. And it'd also mean the time required from people for each delivery is 10x.
Just think about it, it takes 30 seconds at most to load each package into the truck and 1 minute at most for the driver to deliver each package with, 2 to 5 minutes between each stop. Compare that with 1 minute to take a package out to load the drone, 10 to 20 minutes for it to fly to the customer's house, 5 minutes for it to land, the customer to come out, get the package and then for the drone to take off again, and then 10 more minutes back to the warehouse for the next package. And that's for a SINGLE customer's package out of the hundreds that a single truck serves currently. And a warehouse has hundreds of trucks, so that's 10 or 20k drones at the current scale?
The same thing is true for passenger planes. One plane taking 20-50 people vs 20 planes taking 20-40 people means your cost is massive and the CO2 created in building 20x more planes is insane.
That's NOT to say we shouldn't be working on it and NOT to say it won't happen. Because we should and it will. It's just not "here" yet. We just need another 10 or 20 years though.
Great video Cleo, i'm working for Lilium and i'm so proud to be part of the beginning of a new era of the aerospace
Really insightful when you started zooming in on CO2 emissions and how we can chip away at them. Another interesting way is to eliminate first class flights… the larger the seats the more CO2 per person-mile traveled. Large penalties for flights that are not full, taxes on jet fuel (there are none) that go into a fund to build public transport (like trains) for distances covered by short-haul flights.
I want to believe, but gotta be honest, I'm getting more *if true on this one than Huge
I remember hearing from Engineering Explained that a lot of the smaller planes require leaded gas too and people living downwind of small airports are just getting lead-poisioning by breathing. Maybe electric planes are help with that too.
They should make charging time a non-issue for commercial aircraft by just swapping in a fully charged battery between flights. I realize those batteries are massive, but they can make equipment to support this on the runway.
Love it. I think we'll be seeing major battery changes in the next few years, there's a lot of different patents and companies bidding to bring new battery tech to the market relatively soon, and some of the new batteries are looking at a 30% improvement (potentially) in gravimetric energy density (so rather than be 34 times heavier for the equivalent power storage, they'll be more like 24 times heavier - which will potentially allow more range).
Thanks Cleo, absolutely love your content! Kudos to you for taking so much effort in making such amazing videos, you rock :)
If there is a thing that shouldn't ever be electric is an airplane. A glider with electric takeoff propulsion, fine. An airplane entirely dependent on electricity? No thank you.
With that said, great work on this! very informative and well presented.
I just love the way you present numbers and why the inventions make sense, unlike other channels who don't know the tech and the efficiency.
This is cool
Cleo might be the best thing to happen to my internet!
I enjoy watching Cleo radiating a smile while talking so enthusiastically
Love the optimism and plethora of information! We are living in the golden age of innovation, can’t wait to see these utilized more!
Lol, I love looking at the world through the eyes of Cleo's child like wonder and enthusiasm. 🤠❤
Those VTOL planes look awesome! They also look like they're very easy to learn to fly! I took 2 years of flying lessons in a 1969 Piper Cherokee and I just barely got it down at the end. Based on what I've seen in this video, I'm pretty sure I could learn to fly this VTOL in just a month or so. Perhaps VTOL aircraft will become the flying cars we've all been dreaming about since the Jetsons!
The real answer to deal with emissions from aviation doesn't depend on electric aircrafts.
First and foremost is reduction in flight volume. That could mean having a video call instead of going on a business trip or not going on vacation in far away places, but also more painful adjustments like not getting to see your family as often.
Next up is replacement. In the best case scenario this could mean a similarly fast high speed train, but might also mean a more lengthy trip on board of an electric bus or slower train.
This is were we cross the line into uncharted territory, i.e. solutions that don't exist right now. The most promising looking one right now is probably e-fuels. Failing that direct-air carbon capture is our last line of defense.
Notice that all of these include massive sacrifices, be it in not being able to go, in price, comfort or speed.
Do not assume that we can innovate ourselves out of the problem. These necessary sacrifices can't be made by voluntary individuals but only collectively. This is why we need legislation that put's the cost of its environmental destruction on the aviation industry, provides a clear timeline for the industry to exist fossil fuels, and a comprehensive effort to build out low emission alternatives like rail transport.
I've just recently found your channel and am enjoying to binge all the videos.
Also i love the finishing note of this one. It really carried such a hopeful vibe, i smiled at your words ✨
Amazing channel you got here Cleo! Watched one short and now i am binge watching all episodes! 😍
Vermont!....now you're talking. That's my state. Hope you loved it.
I first saw the Beta designs at the Vermont Air National Guard open house event 2022. Seems to me the crux in the VTOL air taxi service is that battery energy density (those 2170 form-factor cells) are still sub-optimal by about 130wH/kg. Ideally you'd want to be over 400wH/kg. We're getting closer....
why did i not knew about her content
she makes the best content, entertaining, informative, even her ads are fun!!
Few months ago i was thinking about why airplanes werent electric yet and when it would be possible and now one of my favourite journalists uploaded a video on it! So thank you for that!
Cleo Abram's video "How electric planes are changing flight" is a fascinating and informative look at the latest developments in electric aviation. The video does a great job of explaining the technology behind electric planes and the benefits they offer, such as lower emissions and cost savings. It also highlights some of the exciting new electric planes that are being developed, showcasing the potential of this innovative technology. Overall, I found the video to be both educational and engaging, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the future of flight.
Headed to beta in a few weeks with my stepdad who works in the industry. Very excited.
stuff like this motivates me to do aerospace engineering.
Normally I am perfectly content to just sit and watch Cleo work. Today I was a little jealous.
honestly I could watch hours of your videos. I LOVE HOW YOU ARE SO EXCITED about everything you say.
Thank you thank you thank you for continuing to make these wholesome videos
From your video I infere that electric planes could have their own market: considering the limited range and cumbersome refuelling of cars, especially in mountain, and the limited size of electric planes, perhaps they will be used for intercity connection, like light airplanes or helicopters, but for a much more numerous audience: people will take electric planes to go straight to their destination, ignoring traffic jam and curvy steep roads, leaving most of the high skill of taking off, stability, checking air traffic, landing, to drone-like IA. Then using proximity transport to complete the trip (vertical landing area could be much closer to city centre than airports).
Part of the reason the oversized quadcopter drone is getting a lot of attention for passenger travel is the ease of adding an emergency parachute. The quadcopter's slow speed combined with its small rotors make deploying a parachute a lot easier and safer than in a helicopter.
Your writing is amazing. You make our ears eat up every word and keep us interested all the way through with your positive energy. Looking forward to your future projects.
" I bet we can't either." No truer words were ever spoken!
Brilliant bit of writing, that!!🤩
That last bit, about how it's hard to imagine a way to change the trend of that CO2 curve, was awesome. It gave me a twinge of hope. Thanks.
This video made me so incredibly excited about the future, it's insane!
I'm currently studying transportation engineering in school and am really excited to see this kind of stuff. Thank you for sharing this Cleo :D keep up the great work!
Coming from a 19 year old instrument rated private pilot and car enthusiast, one of the biggest things in aviation I have noticed is the lack of innovation or the extremely slow forward progress. An example of this is with the Cessna 172 which is now over a 60 year old platform that has not seen any major changes since it’s inception in 1956, really only the big change I can think of is fuel injection but that’s really it. Still the same airframe and still the same big inefficient engine. Comparison, Lycoming IO-360 powering the 172 only produces 180hp and a similarly sized coyote V8 out of a mustang produces 3 times the power. The electric aircraft are great for short range but for longer range, I feel that we need to drastically downsize engines, reduction gearboxes and constant speed props are also great tools. Diamond aircraft and Rotax engines are the furthest ahead I’d say. Anyways that’s my two cents on aviation.
your optimism and enthusiasm is contagious lol and your content is top quality.
There isn't that much need for short haul planes, when there is a high speed rail network. Would make more sense to focus on that
The big issue with electric is as the battery depletes, the output voltage decreases. The amount of potential energy in a fuel is always the same, so you have the same amount of power available to you even when running on fumes. With electric that's not the case.
Always love your videos, the information and the positivities you brought in to it.
If you want to lower emissions in US for transportation under 1000 miles - build more railroads, use electric trains. Shinkansen et cetera. All aerial transportation are less effective then trains.
Okay, so how are we charging those batteries? As a science, math & engineering teacher, confronting excited students with these sorts of tough questions is something I personally struggle with.
It's very much no fun being accused of driving a battery operated, limited-function, temperature-intolerant, coal-fired toxic waste mobile. Until we can build and charge electric vehicles responsibly enough to outweigh the variuos issues they're intended to solve, I think we should adopt the tortoise's mindset: slow and steady wins the race.
Leaping and sprinting toward silly non-solutions risks a massive societal backlash. Doing so isn't only extremely poor engineering, but poor public policy as well. We must never mandate unrealistic goals no matter how badly we wish for a world filled with unicorns. If anything, such decisions are probably at least as likely to result in long-term opposition to innovation as to move the majority of us toward adoption. Real hurdles like the cost of entry, vehicle range, the safe disposal of wastes, vehicle & battery life, improved temperature tolerance and charging options are all serious concerns. Should all electric vehicles have hydrogen tanks and fuel cells to extend their operating range in bad situations?
Making bad decisions because things are just plain "neato" is also huge*--and there isn't an "if" in sight.
(*WELL KNOWN TRUTH with thousands of examples)
As always, and after all these years: Amazing video, Cleo.! I know you want to, so dont be afraid to drop a 21 mins video from time to time.! Love the 10+1 minute videos but you are followed by people who are not only here to burn 10 minutes and forget about what they saw in a couple of days... We are invested and 21 mins and follow-ups 6 months later and we all still be here.
This is the optimisim level we need right now!!
Hey Cleo, I love this stuff! It really excites me, but there is one thing I couldn't stop thinking about during the video; what about the harmful effects and shortage of lithium ion batteries? 🤔
i thank you for uploading in 4k, its so very few people who do so
This is sooo good, I would love to choose electric plane over fuel plane any time of the year.
The most important thing that draws me to your videos is your optimism. I love the way you ended the video - even with all this chaos and negativity (looking at you Johnny!), maybe there is still hope 🙃
Your videos are always so informative and of such high production. This was one of my fav episodes
I love this video, MASSIVE changes don’t have to be as massive and instant as we all think. Cutting short flight emissions is a responsible, sustainable and conceivable change in the near future to better the world.
Very cool
It’s such a delight whenever you upload new videos and shorts. You’re the best journalist on CZcams. I find myself caring about every new topics you introduce. Thank you for sharing this gift with the world! ❤
Liquid Piston will TOTALLY TOTALLY revolutionize small air travel!😮
The problem why they don’t let anybody near those electric planes is the noise that they make. The are just incredibly loud, because they basically scaled up drones to the point where people fit in them.
That’s why all Marketing videos (if they are not cgi) of similar planes have music over them and no real sound. There are some advancements in helicopters to reduce the noise by modeling rotor blades after owl feathers and I really hope this research is transferable.
Oh man your energy and vibes are the best.
Great storytelling
That Beta aircraft is so cool! Looks like a giant drone, but with a cockpit, lol. Love how it looks (mostly) like a plane, but has helicopter-like controls (at least the one in the simulator did).
7:34 - so much delight
That is a real reporter."When i dont come back put all the files in the Dropbox"
Planes like the old one you flew in are actually fabric covered metal frames, and I used to do restorations on the fabric. I also worked on engines on similar planes, as well as more modern ones (mostly a lot of oil changes, and disassembling engines for overhaul).
Awesome video and your graphics are pretty cool, but please let them stay on screen a little bit longer.
Your videos are just so informative and amazing. Your work is so vital., You should look into teaming up with Education science classes. You could really inspire so many kids!! ❤❤❤
doing schoolworks and my fav youtuber uploaded a new vid! yayyyy time to take a break :)
With fusion power, we can make jet fuel out of hydrogen from seawater and CO2 from air or seawater. It's regular fuel, but carbon neutral, Gasoline and jet fuel are great batteries. :-)