IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v601y2022i7894d10.1038_s41586-021-04139-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The challenges and opportunities of battery-powered flight

Author

Listed:
  • Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan

    (Carnegie Mellon University)

  • Alan H. Epstein

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Yet-Ming Chiang

    (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Esther Takeuchi

    (Stony Brook University
    Brookhaven National Laboratory)

  • Marty Bradley

    (University of Southern California)

  • John Langford

    (Electra.aero)

  • Michael Winter

    (Pratt & Whitney)

Abstract

Aircraft, and the aviation ecosystem in which they operate, are shaped by complex trades among technical requirements, economics and environmental concerns, all built on a foundation of safety. This Perspective explores the requirements of battery-powered aircraft and the chemistries that hold promise to enable them. The difference between flight and terrestrial needs and chemistries are highlighted. Safe, usable specific energy rather than cost is the major constraint for aviation. We conclude that battery packs suitable for flight with specific energy approaching 600 watt hours per kilogram may be achievable in the next decade given sufficient investment targeted at aeronautical applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Venkatasubramanian Viswanathan & Alan H. Epstein & Yet-Ming Chiang & Esther Takeuchi & Marty Bradley & John Langford & Michael Winter, 2022. "The challenges and opportunities of battery-powered flight," Nature, Nature, vol. 601(7894), pages 519-525, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:601:y:2022:i:7894:d:10.1038_s41586-021-04139-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04139-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04139-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-021-04139-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lin, Xiang-Wei & Li, Yu-Bai & Wu, Wei-Tao & Zhou, Zhi-Fu & Chen, Bin, 2024. "Advances on two-phase heat transfer for lithium-ion battery thermal management," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    2. Alexander Barke & Walter Cistjakov & Dominik Steckermeier & Christian Thies & Jan‐Linus Popien & Peter Michalowski & Sofia Pinheiro Melo & Felipe Cerdas & Christoph Herrmann & Ulrike Krewer & Arno Kwa, 2023. "Green batteries for clean skies: Sustainability assessment of lithium‐sulfur all‐solid‐state batteries for electric aircraft," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(3), pages 795-810, June.
    3. Nyangon, Joseph & Darekar, Ayesha, 2024. "Advancements in hydrogen energy systems: A review of levelized costs, financial incentives and technological innovations," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(3).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:601:y:2022:i:7894:d:10.1038_s41586-021-04139-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.