A new start-up claims it will fly commercial, electric flights from London to Paris in the next decade.
Although the aircraft is actually still to be developed, it would have the capacity for 150 passengers travelling on routes less than 480km.
The company promising such an extraordinary feat is Wright Electric. It proposes drastic cuts to the cost of travel by eliminating the need for jet fuel.
It plans to make all short-haul flights powered by battery over the next 20 years. According to the enterprise, this would account for approximately 30 per cent of all global flights, maintaining that the ‘zero-emissions’ flights will also contribute to reducing air pollution.
In addition to flights being cheaper and more environmentally positive for customers, the company also asserts that the electric flights will also be considerably quieter than other conventional aircraft.
In a statement, Wright Electric co-founder, Jeff Engler, outlined some of the advantages of electric flights:
‘Depending on how it’s designed, you can have an electric plane that’s substantially less loud than a fuel plane. Batteries for the planes could be removed from the craft and charged separately, meaning flights would not have to wait on the runway to ‘refuel’.
‘The way we’ve designed our plane is to have modular battery packs for quick swap using the same cargo container that’s in a regular airplane. We want it to be as fast as possible, so airlines can keep their planes in the air as long as possible and cover their costs.’
The venture has already attracted the attention of British airline company, EasyJet, who told the BBC,
‘Easyjet has had discussions with Wright Electric and is actively providing an airline operator’s perspective on the development of this exciting technology.’
Wright Electric is supported by renowned startup programme, Y Combinator. The programme has backed successful companies like AirBnB and file storage company, Dropbox.
As exciting as it all sounds though, electric flights by Wright Electric is still some years away as the company still has to come by the batteries needed to operate the planes.
