Removable, quickly replaceable fuel cells?
A combination of batteries and removable fuel cells?
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I do think they have the more or less right concept for the future. The tailwheel is a bit retro, but it saves weight, likely improves the packaging, and numerous airliners (think DC-3) flew with them for decades. I will point out that their “flight ready” prototype has been complete for at least 2 years, yet they are still using CGI renderings to show the plane in flight. There is a brief mention of a testing mishap, but nothing about a successful first flight, which leads me to believe it hasn’t happened yet. I’ll be more impressed when it’s actually flying and they can demonstrate that it meets their performance goals. A lot of cool looking aircraft designs never quite get that far.
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Until we have several more major battery technology breakthroughs it’s really hard to imagine electric planes having anywhere near the range that would allow for replacing a significant number of commercial flights. I wonder how likely it is that we could develop a practical, carbon-neutral fuel source in the meantime? How much land or ocean surface area would need to be dedicated to make enough algae-based jet fuel to meet our needs, for example?
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Interesting. I was under the impression that fuel storage was enough of a deal-breaker for fuel cells to be out of play for aviation. Some of my work is in hydrogen fuel cells, but I don’t work in aviation at all, so my info is very lay-person and not closely followed. Thanks for the intriguing thoughts to chase. 
Australia’s CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the ones who brought you wi-fi) have a nifty paper on hydrogen in aviation…
Short-term adoption involves the replacement of on-airport equipment, currently running on liquid fuels and batteries, with hydrogen powered fuel cell alternatives. While not a large contributor to emissions for the sector, on-airport applications represent a straightforward and near-term opportunity to introduce clean hydrogen.
In the medium term, hydrogen can be combined with carbon dioxide to produce a ‘drop-in’ jet fuel that requires no change in existing aircraft infrastructure. Given the low rate of asset turnover within the aviation sector, electrofuels represent a primary way for hydrogen to achieve meaningful decarbonisation before 2050.
Looking forward, increasingly stringent environmental regulations could force a complete departure from conventional jet fuel towards 2050, even with the uptake of electrofuels. Given its unique properties, hydrogen could play a key role in facilitating a transition to innovative and emerging infrastructure for both non-propulsion and propulsion aircraft applications.
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True but this aircraft has a different set of failure modes, as compared to one which runs on pistons or gas turbines. Electric motors are much more reliable, and you still have that central pusher prop which should be able to extend your glide to an alternate landing field, possibly by going above its rated power output.
I wonder if a lightning strike would have an effect on this type of plane.
Gas turbines are vulnerable to lightening strikes as well because their drive shaft bearings can not cope with the resulting electric fields. They seize up and destroy the engine.
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