# Fuel economics of battery-powered airplanes **URL:** \ **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:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977/5 "2021-08-17T09:43:39Z")
A recent thread on electric airplanes which covers a wide range of the factors. > [@Electric airplanes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electric-airplanes/844530): > > NASA is experimenting with an electric airplane, the [X-57 Maxwell](https://www.nasa.gov/specials/X57/index.html). It has several changes that should make it more efficient than just replacing the engines and fuel tanks with electric motors and batteries. They’re taking their time on studying it, making only one change at a time, so it’s going to be a while before they get done. Assuming these experiments all work out the way they expect and adding in other ways to make airplanes lighter (e.g. carbon fiber fuselage and wings), how good of an… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuel-economics-of-battery-powered-airplanes/948977)._