With all the innovations we've seen over the past few decades, Elon Musk and his companies have introduced some of the most innovative methods in space exploration and road transportation. But it is perhaps not only space and earth that the billionaire genius is looking at, but also the kingdom of sky.
In contrast to Elon Musk's automotive and interplanetary ambitions, there is limited knowledge of what to expect from the Tesla aircraft. So we will try to break the article down into five parts: Does Tesla have plans for the aviation industry? Will it be better than a conventional airplane? The problems an electric airplane needs to overcome; the solutions and what to expect from it.
For the aviation industry, Tesla is Ford with its on-road transportations. You can find thousands of videos and leaks about the innovations with their on-road EVs, but a Tesla airplane seems like something that would take a long time. Elon Musk himself stated that he is considering making an efficient electric airplane. What we can tell from the information we have is that Elon kept saying that his idea for the plane would be a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing aircraft). He also confirmed that he plans to make it a supersonic jet, as indicated by his interviews, but just looking on the good side isn't enough to see how well it can perform.
Studying the huge issues and developments required for the project is yet another signification that Tesla is seriously considering. Elon Musk states that the ability they have for a Tesla aircraft is not just an economical problem, also an obstacle of efficiency and resources that is different from other regulatory systems.
There are no car companies that are aircraft companies too. Indeed, it is incredibly difficult to get an aircraft into production and meet all legal and regulatory requirements worldwide. It is incredibly difficult to find the right talent to integrate into an organization and make them work effectively. It is not a money problem, especially when there's just a fundamental limitation on exceptional engineers, although Tesla is going for a full-capacity aircraft.
There have been several studies and patents presented by automakers like Tesla and Hyundai for a prototype of cars that could carry three or four people on air. since these are companies other than Tesla inventing such technologies, it would bring the necessary competition for Tesla in order to present their best results quickly, better than a conventional aircraft.
There is a problem with our planes and no, it's not the lack of innovation, but it is a lack of practicality and expense, for example when Concord came out in the 80s it could do a flight from New York in just three and a half hours get to London, but while this came in handy it had myriad problems, particularly with fuel prices and damaging the ozone layer. It was twice as fast as the speed of sound, which means it was very noisy and required special care during takeoff and landing. The flight was soon stopped due to these issues. Hence we seem to have reached the limit of aviation unless we try to use an electric airplane.
Electric planes run on batteries and can be much cheaper. We could also reduce manufacturing costs. It wouldn't have ridiculously high maintenance costs since, according to Elon Musk, he also plans to make the take-offs more efficient by limiting the runway distance if the plane could produce upward thrust which could then be diverted as forward thrust for movement.
The flight could take off practically like a drone, as the upward thrust could be shared with multiple propellers.
It will be used to limit the noise generated from takeoff. This is also practically possible because the estimated take-off power of an aircraft is only 400 watt hours per kilogram.
Tesla is also working on improving battery capacity, which compelling aircraft. They only really need around 400 watt-hours per kilogram, provided your percentage of cells on the plane is high.
Without the problems we are currently facing, the Tesla plane would be supersonic. This means that transportation would be much faster and travel time could be cut by around 50 percent.
The problems
When we talk about the Tesla aircraft we cannot ignore some of the challenges that lie ahead that Tesla must overcome. The biggest problem with any electric aircraft would be the battery. This is something Elon Musk talked about very often as the biggest obstacle to a Tesla Airplane. Although batteries are powerful, they can only store a limited supply of energy. Unlike fuels, which you can move and transmit in a very limited time, with electricity, it simply isn't possible. Tesla is working on improving their battery capacities. According to Elon Musk, there might be possibilities of creating more efficient batteries in just a couple of years.
Then there's the fact that flights can't have pit stops, and even if you have a full battery in your Tesla car, you may need to make a stop or two if you're going on a cross-country road trip. Fortunately, several companies are working on making batteries more efficient without increasing their size, and this should come as a relief to anyone looking ahead for the Tesla plane, but it's not just battery capacity that airlines are struggling with, but it is also the safety fuel tanks. On a conventional airplane there are several safety precautions to ensure that the fuel tank does not get damaged. Even in case of damage, there are steps to reduce the magnitude. But since the electric airplane is still in a very early stage, there's just not enough research nor certification to provide a protective protocol if something does happen to the battery.
It is also very expensive to regularly check for faults in the battery compared to checking the fuel pipes on a traditional airplane. The conventional airplane also offers the option to dump fuel if something goes wrong during takeoff or landing to minimize explosive damage, but if a battery catches fire there is no way to simply drain the battery from the airplane and from the passengers.
Can Tesla solve the problems of a fully electric airplane?
Pretty much all problems have a solution as long as there is time for us humans to find solutions that are efficient and simple. This can be expected with Tesla. The problems of an electric airplane are not that great, and it has already been proven that we can take off supersonic jets from a vertical takeoff. It is also possible that electric airplanes can travel limited distances, but only come at a limited speed of less than 40 kilometers per hour. Yes, that's exactly what people said about electric cars when they were slow and low mileage, then Tesla happened and changed the world of electric cars. The same can go for planes.
Try to imagine what Time has done to the computers. Computers in the 1980s were gigantic, but with extremely low processing power, while they now are as slim as a MacBook, but with unparalleled performance compared to the old computers. It's only a matter of time before we can see this pattern in batteries too. Just like Spacex partnering with NASA's aviation, aviation departments can also work with Tesla to help make aviation more efficient and cheaper. But speaking of price, you might have to wait a few more years to get ridiculously cheap flights.
