CAN STRUCTURAL BATTERIES SAVE ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT?

The two largest aircraft manufacturers in the world have snubbed battery-operated aircraft. Researchers in Europe think they might have (part of) a solution: Make the plane out of the battery

- Daniel Oberhaus

These jets are critical for moving people and goods around the world, but they are also wildly out of step with global efforts to fight climate change by reducing emissions. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers are aware of their large and growing carbon problem. Aviation is responsible for about 2.1 percent of global CO₂ emissions, which is roughly comparable to the CO₂ emitted by all gasoline motor vehicles in the U.S. annually. But nobody can agree how to fix it.

The technologies contending to decarbonize the airlines are hydrogen, biofuels, and batteries. Boeing and Airbus, the two largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, have very different opinions on which of these heralds the future of large passenger jets. But they appear to agree on one thing: The cost, complexity, and lackluster performance of battery-electric propulsion makes this technology a dead end for large-scale aircraft. After Airbus mothballed its most advanced hybrid-electric prototype, the 100-passenger E-fan X, in 2020, the company has switched its focus to hydrogen fuel cells. Boeing has largely placed its bets on biofuels and hydrogen for large passenger jets, though the company is making strategic investments in smaller-scale electric aircraft such as the "air taxi" being developed by Wisk Aero.