He ends every sentence with THREE... DISTINCT... WORDS....

I was actually wondering how he survived without something related to airplane for past 2 videos.

Electric planes like this may make sense in the remote parts of the US, where public transport is poor. For densely interconnected countries like France, it wouldn't make much sense, when an electric train can carry more passengers

I can't get over how good the brand name "Eviation" is.

Next up: *The logistics of flying electric* ⚡ After that: *How to start an electric airline!*

drinking game: down a shot whenever he says 'therefore'

Thumbnail: Why Electric Planes are the FUTURE… Video: … for a small fraction of aviation

Two things from an aircraft mechanic: Swap out the numbers on decreased maintenance cost with those for battery replacement. The first registered 777 was retired after 24 years with 50,000 flight hours - the equivalent of nearly six years of continuous flying. That's the norm. Airlines don't lease planes for them to sit around and incur storage fees. Electric airplanes will kill batteries faster than typical TBO on most turbine engines. Batteries still have pathetic specific energy. You are talking about taking a 4,000 lbs aircraft that normally carries 1,200 lbs of fuel and now requiring it to carry 20,000 lbs to cover the same range. The cutoff for certification as a part 23 commuter plane is 19,000 pounds MTOW. Now your little ten passenger plane will be part 25 transport category and have to comply with big boy rules, which only add more weight and cost. I also suspect many of the airports that would benefit from cheap short haul flights don't have the runway length to accommodate 50,000 lbs planes. Is it possible? Sure. Does it make any financial sense? Only if you believe the guesstimates of something that's never been done for. I mean, aircraft engineering is famous for sticking to original cost estimates. Does it make any engineering sense? Of course not.

Got worried for a second when there wasn’t an airplane related upload for the past two videos

You can almost hear the semicolon whenever Sam says “therefore”.

I think you ignored a few basic points: 1) How much actual weight would they be adding for these batteries? I'm certain it would be a non-negligible amount, therefore reduced occupancy/cargo. 2) Batteries don't like going from 100% to 0% repeatedly - which causes premature wear. So in order to have longer lasting batteries, you'd need to oversize the capacity (see 1) 2) What's the turnaround time for the next flight given that charging is much slower than refueling (note repeated high current fast charging also degrades the battery)? You could do battery swapping but that would probably be more work than refueling too.

One thing overlooked is that batteries have a lifespan and will have to be replaced. That will need to be amortized into the operational maintenance costs and this will not be insignificant.

That title sounds like it was created by an AI tasked with creating the most "Wendover Productions" style title ever

Great video but you ignored that most of the income from the routes discussed was mainly from subsidies and not tickets. This means that if the operating cost fell sharply then a large part of the subsidies would disappear and thus there would be little change in the profit margins

What about charging wait times? I’m not sure how the scheduling of these smaller regional airlines like Cape Air works, but I know the bigger airlines need as quick of a turn-around time as possible to get their planes in the air and making money. With current charging technology, electric planes will take way longer to be recharged than it would take a regular turbofan/turboprop/prison plane to refuel. This would significantly extend the time these planes are on the ground, both racking up the service fees at the airport and bringing down the income-per-plane for the airline. Maybe Cape air doesn’t need as quick turn-around times because of their regional timetable, but the charging time of these electric planes should not be ignored.

I’d like to see numbers on that “electricity is effectively free” claim.

As an Aeronautical Engineering student, I feel I need to make people aware that some information given in this video is not complete. Large scale commercial electric aviation is definitely not possible with the coming 30 years or so. Firstly, there are the energy density issues that come with both lithium and hydrogen fuel cells. Given the current energy density of these type of "fuels", a plane will be unable to complete a flight with payload. The amount of development needed to get anywhere close to the energy density of traditional fuels is enormous and cannot be simply overlooked as done in this video. Secondly, the regulatory and safety bit which is always part of aviation has significant influences. Current regulations are not yet ready commercial electric flight and will need significant revisions and additions in order to guarantee safety. The last issue I want to mention is that the impact of electric flight on airports is completely overlooked. Current airports are nowhere near ready for the transition to alternative fuels. The infrastructure required to accommodate large scale electric charging or hydrogen transport is significant and will need to be widespread to make commercial electric aviation possible and profitable. At my college, we do not even cover other forms of propulsion other than combustion engines as these new forms will not be viable in the coming 30 years or so. In this comment I have only pointed out some of the issues related to commercial electric flight. But I hope this gives a bit more context on the matter.

Now this is the Wendover we knew and loved! P L A N E S !

Batteries being less energy dense than fuel is actually a big problem. Lithium-ion batteries are very light already, but still not close to kerosene. It’s not just some extra cost, each bit of extra weight increases the energy required to take off, and store that energy you’ll need to use heavy batteries - increasing weights again. Right now the technology just isn’t there for commercial aircraft.

It's cool watching this the day a battery company is about to release an almost doubled the average watt per kg from 275 to 500. Things move quickly.

16:56 Grumpy dude in a big flower bath, yeeting his laptop into the water: probably the best stock footage acting ever.

"The U.S. government subsidizes routes to these small, remote communities... " Augusta, the literal capital of the state of Maine: Am I a joke to you?

One of your best videos yet. Keep up the good work.

This is amazing, because if you look at the history of commercial air travel, this is exactly how many airlines started in the 1920's and 30's with early development of arifoil and ICE power trains. Super cool.

Everyone gangsta until the plane is on 5% mid air

But, that $2 million profit becomes a loss/near loss when the gov't pulls the support funding because the airline technically no longer needs it because they're turning such a huge profit. Maybe only a portion is pulled, but either way, I would predict that the funding will get pulled/reduced and the equation will look much different.

Great video as always! Got excited to see PDX airport @ 16:07 though!

2:07 - "...consumers increasingly care about their carbon footprint." Actually, "consumers increasingly care about pretending to care about their carbon footprint". I know sometimes it's hard to parse, but that's closer to the truth.

Dam 1 dollar a month for both that’s insane I never thought I would buy a UKpostsr sponsorship but this is just too good.

When talking about electric and battery tech, can Wendover make a video about recycling current batteries, like EV cars' batteries? Because if we don't address this recycling issue now, soon it will be too late to ignore and create another environment problem.

Funny. If the algorithm is hampering with access to videos being over 15 minutes long, it's hardly doing it all that much. This video goes over 15 minutes and it works perfectly well for me. But anyways, you guys have made quite an intriguing insight into the potential future of the airline industry. Keep up the good work over there.

Another fantastic video. Keep up the good work.

"Electricity [...] cost is so low [...] that it essentially becomes a non-factor" *cries in German*

According to a recent AOPA article, jet fuel is 50 times more energy dense than batteries. Until batteries make a quantum leap in technology there’s no overcoming that.

The trouble with the Rockland example is, as soon as an airline adopted electric and showed better profit margins the government would get rid of the subsidy.

I loved airports and airplane and you scratch the itch for knowledge on the topic I've always wanted

How many plane videos will you post? Wendover: Yes

Planes are interesting! By the way, thank you for always having subtitles, because I'm German and I think that's the best way to learn English.

This video was amazing, very informative and profesional. Thanks for being awesome. Gonna check out nebula

10:08 love that signature "you see"!

As soon as short-range electric aircraft become generally available, the bids for subsidized routes will drop and cut the margins to the razor thin levels they are now.

A 777 carries 171,175 liters of fuel at approximately 35 Mega Joules per Liter. A lithium battery has an energy density of about 0.3 MJ per Kg. So, a 777 would need 19,970,417 Kg of batteries for maximum range. So, while there may be niche case for electric airplanes (especially given the dubious assumptions in the video), there will need to be several orders of magnitude improvement in energy density before anything but the shortest flights are electric. The other things that videos like this seem to ignore is that the cost of electricity will go up dramatically with transportation electrification. If we really want an electric future, we need to start building giant nuclear plants today. There is no other currently proven technology that can provide enough energy for transportation electrification on the timelines governments have been pushing.

I live in Australia which has a lot of small regional airports and I've been thinking about this for the past two years. I personally hope some of the Australian based startups get in on the electric aviation production game.

While battery-electric may win these short routes, I’d wager that the medium-to-long-term solution for longer routes as they get squeezed by regulation will be H2 fuel. Liquid Hydrogen isn’t as energy dense as jet fuel, but is comparable, and like Jet Fuel works on the same general “burn the fuel to superheat air and toss it out the back” principle that jet fuel does, so tradition tubojet, turbofan, and turboprop engines only need to be redesigned, not completely reimagined to work with H2. And H2 can be produced from water with electricity and only releases one combustion product: water, the same as it was made from. So it’s at least as green as batteries (many would say greener, since batteries aren’t green to manufacture or dispose of), comparable to jet fuel in a lot of other ways (tho COLD, which poses some extra logistical issues), and like battery-electric, it is feasible to manufacture on site at a lot of airports instead of shipping it in.

"Rockland is a tourist hotspot" - procedes to show footage of Portland Headlight in Cape Elizabeth, 80 miles away and serviced by an entirely different and more accessible airport.

There is much more to these aircraft than just the engines, cabin pressurization, wing anti ice, cowl anti ice, just to mention a few... I suspect that the cost breakdown you showed is overly optimistic and in reality cost of ownership, as well as cost of maintenance will be significantly north of what you predict.

There's one big problem with going to more smaller flights. Especially at busier, hub airports, there are limited landing and takeoff slots. 1 100 passenger jet takes half as many slots as 2 50 passenger prop planes. We'd probably need to build a bunch of new, though shorter, runways, which is expensive, but also politically difficult.

So we are gonna get one in like 20-30 years. Battery technology needs to massively innovate so that electric planes become viable for anything that isn't short distance flying

There is one issue I am wondering about, the de-icing/anti-icing system. Without jet engines to provide bleed air for a heat source and generators/alternators to provide electricity to run the pumps for de-icig boots, the electric aircraft will need to find a way to prevent icing in flight. The electrical de-icing/anti-icing systems are massive power drains on the elctrical systems and would greatly shorten the aircraft's range if they used the main batteries. I am sure they will have a work around but it is just food for thought.

I guess we shall see how the economics work out, but I suspect that unless the specific energy of batteries increase by 10x, electric planes might stay niche in the transport industry.

Eviation is growing like crazy. Their newe design is sleek af and already got orders from companies all across the world

It seems like combustion engines powered by synthetic/bio fuel produced with renewable energy is the way to go, but it's not something talked about often for some reason.

Seeing how much Sam likes to talk about airplanes, I think he should rename the channel to "WENDOV-AIR PRODUCTIONS"! :D Orrrrr..... maybe not. But it's an idea!

2:50 I think this part about trains is the most interesting part of the video. With the cost of running and airline so much higher than running trains and the price of fuel vs electricity, I'm amazed that trains aren't so much cheaper that everyone just takes the train and short haul flying is the more expensive option. I live in a place where flying is by far the cheapest and quickest way to travel short haul (300-1500kms) as the roads are mostly terrible and there are no train options. For a 1500km journey you either: -fly there in 1 hour 45mins -drive in 2 days -take the bus and take 3 days. If a 4 hour train ride was an option and it were cheaper than flying I'd do it in a heart beat.

Amazing content, keep it up!

good luck recharging an electric airplane in the just 30 minutes "ground time" they have today.

"There are no mom and pop airlines" That's actually false. There are a few, but they're usually in the form on one person with one plane flying a short, niche route for a very limited number of passengers

Sam: If you heard me in the past, you should already know that the most costly element of flying is fuel. Now, eliminate it totally.

Electric aircraft do have some advantages, the col (center of lift) and center of mass (com) do not change in flight, as a plane burns fuel its com changes because it is no longer pushing around that fuel, that is a very bad thing for stability, batteries weigh the same if they are drained as when full.

Recently took a trip from the US West Coast (where cities tend to be further apart, and train infrastructure is.... not good...) to the US East Coast. One leg of the flight was a leg that was nominally a 1 hour 39 minute flight. But of course we had to be at the airport more than an hour early, the airport wasn't in the core of the city, adding a 45 minute drive, and the airport at the destination wasn't in the core of the city, adding another 30 minute drive. All told, with minor delays, the time from downtown-core to downtown-core was closer to 4 hours. The train ride back? Train station was in both downtowns (in fact, both cities had multiple train stations in their downtowns,) the total train ride was a few minutes more than 3 hours (3 hours 2 minutes is the official time, I'm sure it took a few minutes longer than that,) and the time spent in the train station prior to boarding the train was less than 5 minutes. And the train stopped in the middle over a dozen times at places airplanes don't serve. Sadly, in neither place does the train get within walking distance of the airport! Either way, when flying, I had to take "vehicle with rubber tires" some noticeable distance at each end. (One end was a 15 minute hotel shuttle from airport to hotel, then a second 15 minute hotel shuttle from hotel to train station, as the hotel was exactly in between airport and train station. The other end was 45 minute Uber.) One part of the trip involved taking the train along one stretch of the total trip for an hour and a half - the cities at both ends have airports, but no flights are offered direct; because the train is absolutely faster. In this case, time from "sidewalk to train" was less than 2 minutes, since you buy the ticket on the train, and the train stops *JUST* long enough for people to get on and off. It's a distance that on the West Coast would be served by a "short haul" airline flight; which would have expedited security lines, but still would be longer in the airports than the total train time on the East Coast. With those distances, the time spent in the air isn't even a quarter of the total time "traveling" on the West Coast.) (We took the train multiple times 'back and forth', while the flight was only the initial "getting there from the West Coast" side; had I known the train was so much faster, I would have ended the flight in the second-to-last city, and just taken the train to the final "initial stopping point" the next morning, staying the first hotel night in the second-to-last city instead of the airport-town closest to the "initial stopping point.")

'Airlines are scared of the r-word... regulations' -Wendover 2021

Your definition of "energy density" confuses it with "specific energy"

Living in Western Scotland this could be really beneficial for us as we're close enough to Ireland, also near the Isle of man and several island communities within 200 miles reach.

Excellent reporting and commentary!

Hydrogen powered aircraft seems more likely, it dumps it's weight as it goes unlike batteries, and it's production is "green". They will at least be used for long distance where diminishing weight is essential.

So, aren't hydrogen based planes a much more likely idea of longer haul? Fuel Density is better and refueling times are a lot better. Once you get there, you could used them for short haul flights as well.

I love the objective tone of these videos. You never try to make anyone seem good or evil for the most part, you just state the facts and let the viewer decide for themselves what to think.

That was quite the stretch to get to the sponsor. I’m impressed.

9:30 There is still the issue of charging time. Petro fueled aircraft can take on fuel quickly. Unless the airlines buy additional battery packs that can be quick swapped small electric vehicles couldn’t be used. 15:08 It will need to charge sometime. It has a range of 440 nm on new batteries.

We need a 1 hour video completely about planes

This was very insightful.

Thank you for teaching me that the first manned electric powered flight was made by a fellow austrian. A fact, which I am sure no one in my surrounding has even the remotest idea of.

Aight you've finally convinced me to get Curiosity Stream & Nebula Edit: A bunch of people are pissed at me for some reason

"Every change we see [in these airports/megaprojects] has gone through intense planning and scrutiny" - you've never been to germany before, have you?

I am really looking forward to green flying.

I really like this video because it actually shows how much power regulations can actually have to create change, airlines are putting massive amounts into R&D, just from the fear of regulation

What about turn around time? You can fuel in minutes, therefore you need more aircraft some charging and some flying.

I am still waiting for my flying car, as promised on the cover of Mechanix Illustrated magazine in June of 1955, when I was 2 years old.

Rockland is great. I was just on vacation in Camden. I find it funny the area is considered “remote.” Seemed like a big place when I was there. Pretty close to August and Portland too.

So true about short distance flying being more expensive than long distance. A short distance flight from my school to my home costs $1,300 round trip. About the same cost to fly the entire length of my country return.

Was so nervous as soon as I heard that Sam was going to analyze my employer but I feel better now that I reached the end of the video. Rockland is such a tiny but beautiful place! Thanks for making this video Sam! If you ever decide to visit Rockland I might be your pilot :D

Wendover guy: "There are no 'mom and pop' airlines." [LoganAir has entered the chat]

We should use blimps for short-distance high-capacity flights

the problem banning the flights under 2.5 h is that for wxample in Spain a high velocity train Barcelona Madird (more or less 2.5 h) are about 50, 60 or 100€ the same flight is about 25€. The price is for a trip booked at 14/1/22 for the days 1/2/22 and 2/2/22

The future of [short haul] flying may be electric. But there's no reasonable prospect of an Airbus going all-electric any time soon.

The soundtrack has me reflecting on my whole life

3:03 "less reliable departure times" *laughs in Deutsche Bahn*

I've noticed that Wendover's videos on airlines always show a lot from Portland and the rest of the PNW, like here, Pendleton, OR.

An electric plane is less efficient at the end of the flight than at the start...weighs the same and batteries are depleted. A jet loses weight as it burns fuel, becoming more efficient and better performing as the flight progresses.

"...without a negative impact to overall trip time" 45 minutes vs 75 minutes would mean an increase of 60% in trip duration. That's a pretty negative impact. There is likely a lot of people taking those flights precisely because it's significantly faster to do so than taking a car, bus, train, etc.

Lol @1:08 that’s the Chaudière bridge in Ottawa, Canada. That shot was taken when the river had overflowed back in early summer 2017

Brilliant and informative video. I am a skeptic and you made me a believer. Now which airline/Manufacture to invest in. Hhmmm

but... the electric plan in your example only holds 9 people, so the extra 11 minutes isn't much, but what about the 10 additional planes required and the time it takes all of them to take off and land and passengers to board etc.

Jesus, this background music is making me cry. D:

You sold me lol love your content!

Instead of eliminating "fuel costs" it would be more logical to compare energy/fuel cost per mile flighted.

Planes and Wendover. Never ending bond.

As the holder of an MSME with 30 year’s experience in aerospace design and flight test, I'm stuck somewhere between horse feathers and opium for the new age masses. This offering is sufficiently misleading as to be labeled shameful.

Seeing the Continental Express plane at 4:24 really took me back about 10 years, lol

Teacher: make sure you use transition words for the next mid term essay! *Therefore* Wendover: Yes