A FUTURISTIC airplane promises to revolutionise short-haul flying with cheaper and cleaner trips.
Dubbed the Octoplane, the all-electric aircraft has eight battery-powered props and could take you all the way to Switzerland without a drop of fuel.
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Dutch startup Elysian, the creators behind the Octoplane, want to defy the conventional thinking that battery-operated aircrafts can’t be large or travel long distances.
That’s why the startup’s conceptual design is inspired by older, bigger planes built to travel vast distances and carry a lot of fuel.
Elysian collaborated with experts at Delft University of Technology to assess the possibilities for a new approach to electric aircrafts.
Reynard de Vries, Elysian’s director of design and engineering, said: “We realised that in some of the old design books, you actually find information hidden in there that’s never been applied to battery-electric aircraft.”
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Octoplane has wider wings and a smaller fuselage than a traditional plane, which improves aerodynamics.
The wings are so large—with a span of 141 feet—that the tips are designed to fold up so the jet can fit into airport gates.
The batteries are mounted on the wings, taking use of the available space and making the plane’s body lighter.
Elysian wants to make the super plane travel nearly 500 miles on a charge and carry up to 90 passengers.
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A gas reserve system can be employed if an aircraft is delayed or rerouted unexpectedly.
But on a normal trip the jet can travel 497 miles (800 kilometres) on the batteries alone.
de Vries also explained that studies suggested that all-electric planes can only carry up to 19 people because “that’s actually based [only] on a handful of calculations.”
“They said, ‘Let’s take the best possible short-range aircraft today, like a good turbo prop, and let’s try to electrify that—what happens if instead of using fuel, I would use batteries?’
“And indeed, if you would run the numbers on that, you would see that it’s a very poor performing aircraft. The range will be limited,” he said.
The Elysian boss believes that may change by redesigning the plane rather than attempting to adapt a simple modern plane.
He added that having the heavy batteries on the wings rather than the body “is very beneficial from a structural point of view”.
That way, the weight is evenly spread through the wings rather than weighing down the fuselage.
The team is now working on a number of technological difficulties, ranging from battery development to power distribution throughout the plane.
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They intend to provide an updated design by the end of the year before moving on to more thorough development.
If all goes well, the first flights could begin in 2033.
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