Current battery tech to power electric aircraft have insufficient energy density to make electric passenger airline flights realistic. Plus:
Reserve requirements could severely limit the true range of electric planes. A plane needs extra capacity to circle the airport for 30 minutes in case it can’t land right away, and it must also be able to reach an alternative airport 100 km (60 miles) away in an emergency.
When you take all that into account, the usable range of a 19-seat plane goes from about 160 miles to about 30 miles. For a larger aircraft like the 100-seat planes that Wright is building, it’s less than six miles.
Source: This is what’s keeping electric planes from taking off
Battery tech needs to be about 4x more energy dense than is available today. Hydrogen might be a better solution. Is this effort worth it for a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 2%?
