Zunum Aero Developing Electric Powered Aircraft for Regional Flights
April 5th, 2017They’re actually going to be hybrid to start, according to the Zunum Aero website:
Did you know that short-haul flights produce over 40% of aviation emissions? With our aircraft, we believe these will be largely eliminated within twenty years. Our aircraft are “hybrids to electrics” that sip fuel only when they have to, will use even less over time as batteries upgrade, and will one day go completely without — so that flying will be kind to the Earth.
Via: USA Today:
Zunum Aero announced Wednesday it is developing electric aircraft to get travelers out of their cars and into planes for regional commercial flights of up to 1,000 miles.
The Kirkland, Wash.-based company is working with Boeing HorizonX, an arm of the jet manufacture that invests in innovative technology, and JetBlue Technology Ventures to develop 10- to 50-seat aircraft for flights that could begin in the early 2020s. The goal is to return flights to smaller communities that lost air service during the last 30 years as regional airlines consolidated routes aboard larger aircraft.
“We believe that the industry is on the cusp of a golden era on regional air,” Zunum CEO Ashish Kumar told USA TODAY. “Air used to be a much larger factor of the travel over these distances.”
Despite flying lower and slower than airliners, Zunum officials hope to cut airfares and overall travel times in half with more-efficient planes flying mostly out of general-aviation airports. Passengers would carry their luggage straight from their cars to the planes, rather than pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.
“The cabin is designed to bring all your bags on board,” Kumar said. “It’s much more like a bus or a train.”
Related: Electric Plane Using Siemens Motor Sets 2 New Speed Records
