The future of flying is electrifying | Cory Combs

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If you're a frequent flier, you're also a major polluter. What if there was a way to travel the world with less impact on the environment? In this quick, exciting talk, aviation entrepreneur and TED Fellow Cory Combs lays out how electric aircraft could make flying cleaner, quieter and more affordable — and shares his work on Electric EEL, the largest hybrid-electric plane ever to fly.

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25 Comments on The future of flying is electrifying | Cory Combs

    • Did you actually watch the video? I’m thinking about the part when he said battery electric planes are simply not possible yet and that’s why only certain parts of the processes should be electrified as a start, in a hybrid manner, just like when the Prius started electrifying cars. That part.

    • That’s why as technology progresses more batteries will become exponentially more efficient and lighter eventually getting to the point here we can do just that.

    • @Daniel Eneström I highly doubt that hybrid planes are reasonable, because, combuscion engine and a jet are made to work at the peak of efficience, so why add battery and electric motor.
      Also Im thinking about large commercial planes, not light aircrafts, because pollution from large planes is way larger problem.

    • @Wolfshirt In an few decades.
      Batteries are good enough for cars, they are quite near to be light enough for trucks, but planes are way of.

  1. Watching this as I’m wating to board my plane. Thanks for the talk, it is necessary we take steps towards de-carbonization now !

  2. At last an interesting video about technology instead of someone complaining about how they are a victim whilst seemingly forgetting that they had a TED talk. Battery technology will have to change a lot to become useful in passenger flight and have ground haulage. Hybrid sounds like a good first step.

  3. Take steps towards de-carbonization: yes we need.
    But it is a product placement 01:40 more than an aswer.
    Trains are in my opinion a better way for most of us, and for smaller routes we could use planes.

  4. I want to invest this company for $10.
    If YouTube survives next 5 years. It will be two options, my investment (comment) will worth $100,000 or the company will fail.

  5. Many questions for the “Worker in Aviation”. Where are we going to get so much Electricity from, many power plants are being shut down. Eolic is not enough plus the sonic pollution is not healthy.

  6. So, it all depends on miracle batteries… Next video you can say that the future of flying is star trek like teleportation. We just need to invent the technology to allow that.

  7. Well, battery technology hasn’t fundamentally changed since it was conceived. The only real thing we’ve done, is make them bigger/compact sizes, but still providing the same output compared to its size/weight. It’ll be a LONG time before planes can fully utilize batteries as their main source of ‘fuel’, if at all, because of the sheer weight.

  8. How would sheer jet engine power be beaten by electric power in a passenger airliner travelling around the world to a destination?

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