Electric aircraft

An electric aircraft is an aircraft powered by electric motors. Electricity may be supplied by a variety of methods including; batteries, ground power cables, solar cells, ultracapacitors, fuel cells and even power beaming.

Electrically powered model aircraft have been flown since the 1970s, with one unconfirmed report as early as 1957. They have since developed into small battery-powered unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, which in the twenty-first century have become widely used for many purposes.

Although manned flights in a tethered helicopter go back to 1917 and in airships to the previous century, the first manned free flight by an electrically powered aeroplane was not made until 1973 and most manned electric aircraft today are still only experimental demonstrators. Between 2015 and 2016, Solar Impulse 2 completed a circumnavigation of the Earth.

All electric aircraft to date have been powered by electric motors driving thrust-generating propellers or lift-generating rotors. Some of the propeller-driven types have been airships.

Mechanisms for storing and supplying the necessary electricity vary considerably, and each has distinct advantages and disadvantages. Mechanisms used include:

Batteries are the most common Energy carrier component of electric aircraft, due to their relatively high capacity. Batteries were the earliest source of electricity, first powering airships in the nineteenth century. These early batteries were very heavy and it was not until the arrival of technologies such as nickel-cadmium (NiCad) rechargeable types in the second half of the twentieth century, that batteries became a practicable power source. Modern battery types include Lithium-based and a number of other less widely used technologies. Such batteries remain a popular power source today, although they still have limited life between charges and hence limited range.

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