There is quite a bit of talk of electric fans and fuel cells. I am extremely skeptical of this configuration. Fuel cells are clearly superior to batteries for aviation but I will bet on the evolution of the turboprop over electric propulsion for the next generation of commercial travel. Electric commercial aviation is two generations away, at best. For the argumentative types, I did not just write that electric aviation is two generations away. There will be plenty of electric aircraft in the air in the next five years. My point is that you won't be getting on an electric aircraft to fly to Hawaii in the next 15 years. Aviation is extremely slow to evolve. I have no doubt Boeing is working on new airframes and working with next generation propultion, right now. Not for commercial aviation, though. Boeing has the advantage of hosting drone development. When we start to see drones with high aspect ratio wings and next generation fan propulsion, we will know a new commercial airliner is just around the corner. If new technology can achieve half of what has been promised, airlines will be standing in line to get the new aircraft. Hopefully, Boeing will have purged most of their corrupt management by then.
Stellantis has a joint venture with Archer Aviation to make electric air taxis. So electric air travel is definitely being worked on.
I wish to ask, as politely and delicately as I am able, what Stellantis brings to the table of electrified flight? BTW, there are a lot of electrified aircraft projects. Many of them started years ago. In fact, there is a commuter airline that operates 10 flights per day between New York and Washington D.C., transferring thousands of passengers per day. No... I'm just kidding. This is another case where 99.999% of people think you can install some batteries and an electric motor in place of an engine nacell and convert a plane to electric propulsion in an hour. As mentioned in my previous post, lots of work being done but nobody is going to be flying from the mainland to Hawaii on an electric plane in the next decade. We will be lucky to achieve that in 15 years. Initially, electric aircraft will be dedicated to short haul cargo. It will be quite a while before PAX are being shuttled around in flying hair dryers. It will be far, far longer before PAX are flying over an ocean in an electric plane. 8 to 10 years after the technology is sufficiently mature to electrify regional travel, never mind long haul.
Question 1: Capital, and far more manufacturing capability than Archer would have without them. Question 2: I was only talking about the one I'm most familiar with. Our plant manager is going to help them out in Georgia soon. Comment 3: That's exactly what this joint venture is. Short hauls.
It seems an odd fit but I find it extremely interesting. If an aircraft startup had easy access to CNC manufacturing, it could cut 90% of their time to first test flight. I watched two aircraft startups fail. Both had excellent ideas and were operated by really strong thinkers. In both cases, they bit off more than they could chew in terms of cost and sheer man hours to produce a prototype. Whatever the case, I wish both companies well. It's great to see Stellantis branch out beyond automobiles. The car industry has some pretty severe years ahead. I just checked out the Archer Aviation web site. That configuration looks extremely similar to something I saw about a decade ago. It was probably an earlier iteration from Archer but I don't recall the specifics. The prototype doesn't look real. It looks like a rendering. It's absolutely gorgeous and certainly an interesting design. The route he announced at the end of the unveil was NY city to Newark Liberty International Airport. That is really short; far less than 50 miles miles. This is what I would expect from a battery operated aircraft. With fuel cells, they could go substantially further but I expect that will be for a new, second generation, airframe.
AEROSPACE & DEFENSE Boeing sells 78 Dreamliner planes to Saudi airlines CNBC Boeing said Tuesday that it has reached a deal to sell 78 of its 787 Dreamliner planes to two Saudi Arabian airlines, the latest large order for the wide-body jets in the past few months. The jetliners will go to Saudi Arabian Airlines, or Saudia, and a new airline, called Riyadh Air, which Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced over the weekend. Saudia ordered 39 of the planes, with options for 10 more, and Riyadh Air will get 39 of the two largest models of the planes, with options for 33 more. Boeing did not disclose a timeline for deliveries of the planes. “This will support the country’s goal of serving 330 million passengers and attracting 100 million visits by 2030,” Riyadh Air said in a news release. The sale shows a pickup in demand for wide-body aircraft, planes that are used for long-distance flights and fetch a higher price than the more-common narrow-body jets. Riyadh Air is owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund and will be helmed by Tony Douglas as CEO, a longtime industry veteran and former CEO of Etihad Airways. In December, United Airlines agreed to buy at least 100 Dreamliners from Boeing and last month, Air India placed an order for 460 Boeing and Airbus planes. Boeing is set to resume deliveries of the Dreamliner planes this week after a weekslong pause resulting from a data analysis issue it disclosed last month.
