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Electric Aviation Takes Off: H55’s B23 Energic Embarks On Cross-Country US Tour
(cleantechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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What's the range and charge time for max range? It's good to see aviation getting nore electric but pointless (to ordinary consumers I know there are accessibility advantages) if you can't go as far in a day as a comparable electric car.
The B23 has 60 minutes of endurance plus 10 minutes reserve. For each minute of flight it needs a minute to charge. Recommended flight time is about 40 minutes, which make sense to keep the battery at a healthy state of charge. However I'm confused by how they can market a 10 minute reserve time when the FAA requires 30 minutes reserve fuel for visual flight rules and 45 minutes reserve fuel for instrument conditions.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/91.151
It says cruise speed is 110 knots (120mph or 200km/h). Cruise is achieved at 80kW with 48kWh of energy available, so it can fly for 36 minutes total at "cruise" speed. If we subtract mandatory reserves, one could fly for 6 minutes.
For reference, most small airplanes have at least 4 hours of endurance. My airplane has 6 hours.
This "cross country" flight will take months as shown by their schedule. It's neat, but it's very much a prototype.
https://h55.ch/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Flyer_B23_Energic_EU.pdf
In Europe electric planes may fly with less reserve. I think this is to help kick start innovation. I suppose they get priority for landing if necessary. This makes at least one of these electric aircraft ok for training sessions so there is a practical use.
It's just for training pilots not a commercial jet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainer_aircraft
Nothing is going to beat high speed rail for convenience, price, and comfort. Just like cars, overland personal airplanes aren't about convenience or "having a point", they're a hobby. Though in case of cars the hobby got forced on everyone by a literal conspiracy of xenophobes and the ultra-rich.