Page 20 - ATC Special Bulletin Series - Future Skies 2024
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| SPECIAL BULLETIN SERIES | 2024 |
BY YVES LE MARQUAND, Editor Revolution.Aero
CAN ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT FLY MEANINGFUL DISTANCES WITH TODAY’S TECHNOLOGY?
People will give you different odds on future improvements to technology, especially when talking about batteries. But what if you didn’t have to gamble at all?
Christopher Chahine and Marshall Gusman think it’s possible and that is why they founded Cosmic Aerospace. The firm is developing what its founders say will be the first electric aircraft – known as Skylark – capable of flying up to 1,000km (621 miles). How? By focusing its engineering efforts on the development of a highly efficient airframe and propulsion system. The start-up has already built and tested a full-scale electric engine, and also just closed a seed round worth $4.5m led by climate tech-focused venture capital firm Pale blue dot. With a timeline to enter service of five years, there might be a new cosmic event on the calendar in 2029.
Chahine, co-founder and CEO of Cosmic tells us: “Today’s high energy battery cells contain about one thirtieth of the energy of jet fuel per kilogram. If you use those batteries to power a conventional airframe, you end up with very short ranges. To address a larger, more meaningful part of the aviation market, electric aircraft need more range.”
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