Can Chinese electric planes take off?

The concept is familiar: Replace car journeys with high-speed, electric-powered travel for the masses. China does it with a famous (and famously expensive) high-speed train network. Last week, the Boeing and JetBlue invested in another idea: electric planes. If their bet pans out, travellers could start making their first trips in the Teslas of the air in a decade. That could transform the way great swathes of the world get from point A to point B – to everyone’s benefit. Electric planes aren’t a new idea, of course; evangelists have promised their imminent arrival for decades now. But recent advances, particularly in batteries and electric propulsion, make the possibility far more realistic. Boeing and JetBlue were confident enough in the technology to back Zunum Aero, a Washington-based startup that hopes to complete a battery-powered jet by 2020. Until quite recently, electric-powered flight seemed like a stunt more than a pathway to the transportation future. Solar-powered aircraft, for example, are great at raising awareness, but not at moving people around, much less in comfort. Yet advances in lightweight materials, electric motors and, most importantly, batteries have opened up new possibilities. In 2011, a battery-powered, two-seater aircraft built by the University of Stuttgart flew 62 miles on 25 Kwh of electricity that cost around US$3. Three years later, Airbus SE followed with the E-Fan, an all-electric, lithium-battery-powered two-seater. Like automakers, plane manufacturers are focusing now on hybrid technologies that could extend the range of electric planes and be implemented more quickly. Story has more details.<br/>