# Fuel economics of battery-powered airplanes

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 17, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977 "2021-08-17T00:25:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977/61 "2021-08-26T15:24:40Z")

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> [@md-2000](#):
>
> Yes, the collision-proofing for aircraft battery packs is probably less than for automobiles, so lighter. But the main weight is the batteries, and one consideration will be where they are located so typical crash scenarios don’t have the passengers stoned to death by flying batteries, or a scrambled battery pack bursting into flames underneath the passengers. One suspects putting them in the wings is an answer, but that has implications for the strength of the wing spars.

Indeed. And moving weight into the wings - preferably, well outboard of the fuselage - _decreases_ the stress on the wing spars.

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**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977/62 "2021-08-26T17:51:37Z")

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> [@Ruken](#):
>
> People are certainly _talking_ about building one between Baltimore and DC, if you consider publishing a draft EIS to be talking. Although that’s only 40 miles. Whether it’s a good idea or gets built is probably not a discussion for here.

Shanghai airport to south of downtown was considerably less than 40km - IIRC it was about a 10 minute ride. We looked at the regular subway which did a suburban route and from what we could tell that would take well over an hour with about two dozen stops.

It was so incredibly smooth a ride that I looked out the window half-way through to find the whole world had tilted - the curve was so smooth you didn’t notice the banked turn.

Washington-Baltimore is the first logical step in a link to Boston through several major cities assuming someone has the will to spend money. Various administrations have dangled the prospect they yanked away the funding over the last two decades.

Mag-Lev, even more than TGV, needs a support structure. To make good time, it needs a minimum of stops. The surrounding transportation from those stops needs to be sufficient that people would find the whole trip convenient.

For now, it seems short hop commuter aircraft feeder routes an appropriate option, and the really short ones can benefit from electric aircraft. For trips of 5 hours or less, TGV between cities may be an option.

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