Assessment of All-Electric General Aviation Aircraft

Jakub Hospodka, Helena Bínová and Stanislav Pleninger
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Jakub Hospodka: Department of Air Transport, CTU in Prague, 166 36 Prague, Czech Republic
Helena Bínová: Department of Air Transport, CTU in Prague, 166 36 Prague, Czech Republic
Stanislav Pleninger: Department of Air Transport, CTU in Prague, 166 36 Prague, Czech Republic

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe the upcoming changes that will bring the transition from piston engines to all-electric aircrafts. The article focuses on the differences in operation of small general aviation aircrafts. This topic is timely, as the first all-electric aircraft was certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in 2019. As there are no data concerning this new type of operation available, the data have been derived from other applicable sources. At first, we compared the energy consumption of the same aircraft with the piston engine, and then afterwards with the retrofitted all-electric variant. Our results focus on the difference in fuel price, which is discussed in the context of electricity price comparison with AVGAS prices. Moreover, we discuss the environmental impacts, especially concerning electricity source mix and emissions produced (we estimate both with and without life-cycle assessment). In the discussion, we compare the results and identify the benefits of an all-electric solution. Furthermore, several operational restrictions of all-electric aircrafts are discussed.

Keywords: electric propulsion; energy; sustainable aviation; electricity price; operational procedures; general aviation; alternative power; environmental impacts; batteries; energy density; all-electric aircraft; electricity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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