CAE, Piper To Develop Archer Electric Conversion Kit - AVweb

Age? I’m probably younger than 80% of this website’s readers and I still think this is nonsense. Unless some new gamechanging battery technology comes out this is absolutely not practical and will hobble the aircraft in every objective way. The next big thing in batteries is perpetually “5-10 years away!” I’m a M.E. and I work in aerospace, numbers in aviation are kinda something I do and technology is definitely not something you can accuse me of being afraid of. This is just gaming for green energy money, EV tech is definitely not at the level where you can just convert a regular old ICE powered airplane and have something better. The best lithium batteries on the market have a small fraction of the energy density of gasoline, a limited lifespan which is exacerbated by depth of discharge and charging rate, and they don’t get any lighter as the charge depletes. This plane will likely be heavier, have less endurance than and have worse performance than a standard piper archer, and it may not even be cheaper over the lifespan of the aircraft because of the positively massive cost of certified batteries. Ever been to a big flight school? I have, the planes are used back to back unless they get pulled for maintenance or flights get weathered. Unless the battery life is enough for a day of continuous training use the downtime will be higher than with the old ICE. You think an O-360 is expensive to overhaul? Place your bets on how much 100kWh worth of certified lithium batteries, addled by being run hard and charged fast, will cost to replace.