Electric flight/ Hybrid flight:

Quote: beachbumbabs

Waters are very treacherous, so any assumption things move easily by ferry or barge (which I had) is sadly mistaken. EVERYTHING flies.

I spent several weeks on a work boat near the islands of Hawaii . I swear we were tilted at at least 20 degrees most of the time. The waters are terrible.

The waters between Honolulu and Maui are not so rough because they are basically on a submerged volcano, but crossing that deep trench to the big island is a horror.



That 100 mile flight from Honolulu to Maui is so busy that they don't even tell you what plane you are on. You just queue up in a line and they fill up one plane after another. It's like you were boarding an amusement park ride. Hawaiian Airlines has 20 of those B717s with 128 seats, and they just circle around.

The oldest of those B717 had it's first flight on 26. Oct 1998, and they average over 16 years old. Everyone on Hawaii depends on super cheap inter island flights. I guarantee you they will get a lot less green if ticket prices jump up 500%.

Eight small, but very powerful, engines and an efficient battery system constitute a new Ultralight Vehicle that does not require a license and that a person can learn to operate in five minutes. FAA regulations require daytime use, non urban use (keep out of the yellow areas on sectional charts). Cost is about that of a midline SUV. Present battery charge gives twenty-five minutes of flight. Main impediment to growth is the 'not over cities' restriction which not only limits its utility but would require on-board navigational display.
Inventor: Blackstone.... the guy who parachuted from 136,000 feet or something like that.

His craft has no landing gear it just goes in on its belly as sort of a thick rubber under-inflated balloon, so no precision is needed in landing.

Quote: Fleastiff

His craft has no landing gear it just goes in on its belly as sort of a thick rubber under-inflated balloon, so no precision is needed in landing.

You forgot to mention the most important thing. No runway involved at all. Pure vertical take off and landing.

The guy who parachuted 136,000' is on the board of directors.

Quote: Pacomartin

You forgot to mention the most important thing. No runway involved at all. Pure vertical take off and landing.

Might end the 'airports as places you don't want to go to' complaint. You fly from where you are directly to where you want to be.

Are the distances between those Hawaiian Islands suitable for this sort of stuff? Doesn't look so. However there is a lot of rural activity where the ability to just 'get in and go' would be valuable even if its only a flight of 25 minutes at the present time. The 'south forty' get closer this way as to fence lines, pipelines, road houses, small businesses, etc.

Quote: Fleastiff

Are the distances between those Hawaiian Islands suitable for this sort of stuff? Doesn't look so.

It's a ten mile swim from Maui to Lanai which they do every labor day.


The famous leper colony on Kalaupapa which juts out from the northern end of the island of Molokai would be accessible without taking a donkey down the steep cliffs.


Kalaupapa was formed by another volcano that put a small chunk of land north of the steep cliffs, not by normal geological activity. Since it was so difficult to get down the cliff, the Hawaiians would throw the lepers into the ocean offshore, and the diseased would try to swim to shore. Once there they formed a colony cut off from the rest of the world.



Father Damien was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute. He won recognition for his ministry from 1873 to 1889 in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease), who were required to live under a government-sanctioned medical quarantine on the island of Molokaʻi on the Kalaupapa Peninsula.During this time, he taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Father Damien also cared for the patients himself and established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi from his hands with them, providing both medical and emotional support.After eleven years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damien realized he had also contracted leprosy when he was scalded by hot water and felt no pain. He continued with his work despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889 at the age of 49.

While these are minimum payload and minimum time aloft craft, many police departments can not really afford an Air Support division. Planes, pilots, fuel, noise complaints and airport requirements interfere with departmental desires. Now certain departments conquer this situation with drones but a craft that is low, slow and cheap to operate might have certain advantages.

Think perhaps of these outdoor adventures such as the Pink Jeep tours of the Grand Canyon. No need to descent thousands of feet down a switchback trail when a small fleet of these daytime short-range open areas craft are available.

Ars Technica states eight-passenger planes are prime candidates for an all electric airline serving the Orkney Islands.

www.arstechnica.org

Quote: Fleastiff

Ars Technica states eight-passenger planes are prime candidates for an all electric airline serving the Orkney Islands.

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited operates the tiny airports in Northern Scotland. The biggest is Inverness which still has less than 1 million air passengers per year. Most of those distances are under 160 miles.


Highlands and Islands Airports Limited

Quote: Pacomartin

Highlands and Islands Airports Limited operates the tiny airports in Northern Scotland. The biggest is Inverness which still has less than 1 million air passengers per year. Most of those distances are under 160 miles.

Agreed. Very few planes, very few passengers, very short flights. The value is in the notion of ALL ELECTRIC flight. Later it will be airliners and all electric trans-Atlantic flights.