23 March 2017
Low-cost airline easyJet is backing an audacious bid by a Silicon Valley startup to develop and build a 150-seat electric airliner.
Wright Electric announced plans for the Boeing 737/Airbus A320 rival at the Y Combinator Demo Day this week. It has hired a team of engineers that used to work for NASA looking at the potential for electric aircraft, and is keeping its amibitions reined in.
The company, headed by Jeff Engler, is limiting the range to 300 miles at first and will keep to existing airframe technology. The powerplants will depend on how quickly battery technology develops, said Engler.
Wright Electric’s co-founder Jeff Engler talking at the Y Combinator Demo Day.
“We’re not inventing new wings or fuselage formats. Our airframe is designed to comply with existing FAA regulations. The aero team has decades of experience at places like Boeing Phantom Works and Cessna. They’ve received numerous grants from NASA focusing specifically on electric planes. If anyone can design a feasible plane, it’s these folks.
“Batteries – we’ve designed our battery strategy to be robust to different battery futures.
“If batteries don’t get dramatically better in the next decade, we design our plane as a hybrid with electric motors, like a [Chevrolet] Volt [car]. It still has great cost savings as compared to today’s planes, and it doesn’t require massive battery advances.
“If batteries do get a lot better in the next decade, our plane is fully-electric and has fantastic cost savings.
“Our aero team has decades of experience in aircraft design, electric planes, and certification. Our battery team has decades of experience in battery design, battery manufacturing, and early stage startup R&D. This is just about the best group of people one could imagine embarking on a such a journey.”
