ES-30 electric regional aircraft

[anonymous-user]

Some interesting developments in electric aircraft from heart aerospace with the ES-30

https://www.flightglobal.com/airframers/swedens-he...

“ Heart Aerospace unveils new airplane design, confirms Air Canada and Saab as new shareholders”

http://heartaerospace.com/heart-aerospace-unveils-...





Although range isn’t awesome at present future projections look promising.

That isn’t the cargo hold like a Cessna 208 it’s where all the batteries need to go.

[thewarlock]

Interesting!

Why 4 motors? Is it more energy efficient somehow to run 4 smaller motors than 2 large ones? Or is it about the max size of electric motor available? You'd expect them to be very reliable, not many moving parts or things to go wrong.

[100SRV]

thewarlock said:

Interesting!

Why 4 motors? Is it more energy efficient somehow to run 4 smaller motors than 2 large ones? Or is it about the max size of electric motor available? You'd expect them to be very reliable, not many moving parts or things to go wrong.

It's not just moving parts which can go wrong, the batteries are susceptible to thermal effects and have a preferred operating range similar to that of humans.

[thewarlock]

100SRV said:

thewarlock said:

Interesting!

Why 4 motors? Is it more energy efficient somehow to run 4 smaller motors than 2 large ones? Or is it about the max size of electric motor available? You'd expect them to be very reliable, not many moving parts or things to go wrong.

It's not just moving parts which can go wrong, the batteries are susceptible to thermal effects and have a preferred operating range similar to that of humans.

So what's the difference between asking the batteries to run 2 off 1500bhp motors compared to 4 off 750bhp motors?

I know the square root of fk all about battery tech.

[Simpo Two]

Tiny propellers, very big fin.

[GliderRider]

The airframe looks as though it incorporates a number of existing airframe assemblies from one or more existing aircraft. This may be to reduce the number of compnents needing certification from new. Does anyone know for sure?

[Simpo Two]

GliderRider said:

The airframe looks as though it incorporates a number of existing airframe assemblies from one or more existing aircraft.

We shall call it the 'Piltdown Flyer'

[Evanivitch]

thewarlock said:

So what's the difference between asking the batteries to run 2 off 1500bhp motors compared to 4 off 750bhp motors?

I know the square root of fk all about battery tech.

Nothing really.

I suspect it comes down to certification and reliability. This is first of type civil aviation electric motored aircraft. You don't want to get it wrong, and decisions like 2 or 4 engines are made very early in design.

So just like civil airliners used to require 4 engines for the transatlantic trips because of the perceived reliability, I'm pretty certain it was a factor here too.

[CanAm]

Simpo Two said:

We shall call it the 'Piltdown Flyer'

Excellent!