and its plan to make an electric airplane that can carry 100 paying passengers on short flights of an hour by 2027. Think an hour is too short? Check out the map below to see all the places you can fly to in an hour or less from London., NASA, Y Combinator, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, and the Defense Department.
Wright’s proprietary batteries would be four times more energy dense than the lithium-ion batteries that power today’s electric vehicles. Such batteries would enable the electrification of hard to decarbonize transportation and mining sectors, and make electric aircraft that can carry 100 passengers possible.
“To cultivate a breakthrough in energy storage, we engaged four chemistry PhDs to act as scouts for promising battery chemistries,” said Tschida. “This month, we are beginning our second phase of validation experiments with the approaches that showed the most promise.” He explained that batteries can deliver significantly more power at higher temperatures. “Molten batteries can have a higher fraction of lithium, or whatever the active materials are. Atoms are more mobile when they’re in a liquid state. Heating the battery up to a molten temperature creates engineering challenges but it also allows us to have high power density and energy density.”