this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2026
127 points (99.2% liked)

Technology

87183 readers
4232 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
127
First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity (arstechnica.com)
submitted 4 hours ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
20 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I really hope this will catch on for once, it could be a great solution for all those people who insist they have to do domestic flights... (in countries like Germany which aren't that big comparatively speaking)

[–] LilBobbyTables@lemmy.today 7 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

Yeah unfortunately this is only viable for extremely short flights 100-200 miles as the article says. Batteries are just too heavy and planes needs too much power for anything more.

These would be the perfect private jet for the ultra rich who take a jet to work a few minutes away, or to go shopping, but for commercial flights they’re basically not an option until we have a huge breakthrough in battery tech. We need the mythical “coming next year” for the last 20 years “solid state batteries”.

[–] fizzle@quokk.au 1 points 36 minutes ago

Yeah that's it. It's not a matter of "catching on", it's a matter of better battery tech emerging which is more affordable.

Personally I think high speed rail is a better bet. All the tech already exists and the weight of the batteries is less problematic.

[–] ISOmorph@feddit.org 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

IIRC take off and landing is using a huge portion of the fuel needed in regular planes. If you can use this new technology to do those manoeuvres, it would also be a big win for general flights.

[–] son_of_darkness@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Yes and hopefullybreduce pollution and noise levels around airports