Electricity begins to take flight

Mobility is one of the most innovative industries when it comes to creating sustainable models. Green energies have already started this path together with automobiles, which are leading this type of innovation at the moment, but it is time to adopt this type of technology to other industries, such as aeronautics, a sector that is very important in passenger transportation.

Companies such as XPeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV), Nio (NYSE: NIO) or Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are trying to take electric cars to the next level, developing new technologies or making the current ones more efficient for the already known electric cars, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of automobiles.

The costs of using traditional automobiles are currently rising due to the sharp increase in fuel prices; this is a reality that is happening all over the world, for reasons we all know, the excessive inflation and the geopolitical conflicts that are developing. But cars are not the only ones that use fuel to operate; airplanes also make use of it. And the recent price hikes are driving up fares. As costs rise, oil refineries that are in charge of producing specific fuels for aircraft, such as Shell PLC (BATS EU: SHEL) or Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), would benefit.

If we have electric cars, why not have electric airplanes? This is the big question to solve since the implementation of this type of aircraft can bring wide benefits for society, reducing pollution, as well as for airlines, reducing flight costs since electric energy is much cheaper than traditional energy.

The competition to create the world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft is beginning to take off, and this goal, according to industry leaders, will be achieved in this decade, marking 2030 as the key year for aviation. A transition is taking place in this sector as the major companies in charge of designing and manufacturing aircraft are developing prototypes that are efficient but, above all, safe. Airbus (BATS EU: AIR) is one of the leaders in this field and already has plans to achieve zero emissions with green hydrogen aircraft. While not an all-electric medium, it is a step towards the future of electric aviation.

The implementation of the sustainable model in aviation is taking more and more shape, and other companies besides Airbus (BATS EU: AIR) are focusing their resources on leading this race; Boeing Co (NYSE: BA) made an investment of 450 million dollars in the company Wisk Aero, which is designing and manufacturing the first fully electric air cab, but the challenge goes even further, the company will make it fully autonomous.

On the other hand, companies like “Eviation” are in the full development of fully electric aircraft and are already testing their prototypes under stressful situations; this ensures that the work under the worst conditions is controlled so that, in a real test of the aircraft do not present any inconvenience. Alice is its great star, capable of carrying 9 passengers and, tests in the best conditions ensure a distance of about 800 km approximately, with a maximum speed of 463 km/h, certainly a real milestone in aeronautics.

“Pipistreal” is a company owned by Textron (NYSE: TXT) that, like Eviation, is designing fully electric aircraft, but the main difference is that Pipistreal is designing more personal aircraft, and the limitation is the ability to carry a large number of passengers, but the important thing remains the advances in technologies that are being implemented in this sector, since a safe start from something small, has high chances of scaling to something much larger.

Large and small aeronautical companies are working hard to manufacture new high-tech aircraft, adapting in the best way the electric model used in automobiles, demonstrating that eVTOL aircraft are the future of aviation.