AirVenture: Electrics Are Meh

I'm pleased to report my record as an aviation seer—never much to brag about to begin with—is now even more tarnished. I was fully expecting this to be the year that electric aircraft would make a bigger splash at AirVenture. But, just ripples. We reported on the Opener BlackFly in this video and news story and the SureFly Workhorse multirotor is here, but not much else.

It makes me wonder if electrics may be getting a short pause as would-be buyers look at the potential benefits and limitations. This occurred to me when I attended a press briefing by Michael Coates, who leads Pipistrel's efforts in the U.S. Slovenia-based Pipistrel is by far the leader in light aircraft electrics. The factory is expanding into a new operation across the border in Italy and despite being hobbled by short flight duration, those airplanes are finding enough buyers to generate significant volume for Pipistrel. Most are going into Europe, but also the Pacific and Australia. Six are flying in the U.S.

As press briefings go, Coates' was refreshingly honest. No overblown marketing claims peppered by that all-purpose adjective—exciting—but an unvarnished assessment of where the market stands. He concedes that electrics simply aren't yet fully functional airplanes. Pipistrel is addressing that with rapid charging technology, but Coates thinks the market won't potentiate until flight duration reaches about three hours. On batteries alone, that threshold remains over the horizon. In this podcast I recorded, he sees the near term future shaped more by hybrids than by pure electrics.

If that's true, internal combustion engines will need a dose of new development. I don't see any engines that are light enough or powerful enough to work in the hybrid role. For example, the aforementioned Workhouse is a hybrid, but it's relatively slow and has a range of only 70 miles, plus a 400-pound useful load. That's on the low side even for a weight-challenged LSA. Pairing an engine like the Rotax 912 to a generator for hybrid application doesn't deliver much usefulness because it adds the weight of the batteries and associated electrical gear. The gasoline engine itself driving a prop delivers more efficient power loading at a lighter weight.

Pipistrel is involved in the emerging urban mobility concept and Coates thinks if this idea gains ground, it will reset the market, due to sheer volume. But even though Pipistrel is bullish on an electric future, it didn't get to the point of building 200-plus airplanes a year by making ill-advised business decisions. That's another way of saying that Coates and Pipistrel seem to agree with the broad opinion that multirotor urban mobility is a conceptual thing for the moment, but making it a reality ain't gonna be a short cake walk.

The airshow at AirVenture is necessarily carefully scripted. I think it's hands down the best show of its kind in the world and to get it that way, it unfolds like a stage play. No gaps, no dead spots and no surprises.

Except sometimes there are and Wednesday's show had a big one: The Navy's Blue Angels made a surprise pass during the show, catching the crowd and evidently the announcers by surprise. The F-18s made a sweep through, flew a formation maneuver or two and disappeared over the horizon.

I hadn't realized it, but they appeared last year, too, although only with two aircraft. Of course, in an airshow this complex, they don't just call up the tower and do the Ghostrider thing. The scripting is done in the background and this one has Jack Pelton's fingerprints all over it.

I heard them go by, but no eyes on for me. Pity, I'd would like to have added them to my collection of out-of-focus airshow snapshots.