WEBVTT

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"It's the best job in the world."

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"I think my job

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is the best in the world..."

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I flew in this electric plane –

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whose journey, you could argue, started in 1883.

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That was the first electric aircraft

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that ever flew –

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around 20 years before

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the Wright brothers.

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A long line of funny and useful e-aircrafts

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came after – including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

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aka drones – and led the path to today.

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"Oh my God!"

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"This is the first certified plane

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to fly electric in the world!

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Right?"

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"Yep!"

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Dozens of projects around the world

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are now figuring out

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how to finally

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make electric aviation a reality.

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And some, honestly, look downright funky.

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They're convinced the time has come.

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Some companies are already selling tickets.

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They're silent, cheap to operate,

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and potentially up to 90% more efficient

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than jet-fuelled aircraft.

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And e-planes are just...

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"...so cool!"

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But as you can see here:

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It's really easy

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to get caught up in all the hype.

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They have never really worked

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at scale before.

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So I’m in North-Eastern Sweden

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to find out:

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"Why are we all not flying electric yet?"

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It won't surprise you to hear

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that how we fly today needs to change.

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Aviation makes up for around 3%

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of global emissions.

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And ok, that really doesn’t sound so bad.

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But by 2050 that number is projected

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to rise to over 8 times that.

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And there are no real ways

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to fly pollution-free.

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So it is worrying.

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One of the most promising solutions

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to aviation pollution are biofuels

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or more broadly

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sustainable aviation fuels.

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They're mostly made from

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non-petroleum products

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like biomass or algae.

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You can basically just

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swap the fossil fuels

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in here for biofuels,

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or make a blend.

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But we need so much of it,

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that scaling up is very hard.

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And the land could be used for

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other purposes like growing food

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or saving forests.

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And then there's also hydrogen,

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that's showing promise.

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Especially hydrogen made sustainably,

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and a lot of prototypes are being tested.

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Electric planes are a third option.

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And they can make a really compelling case.

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"Up here where we live,

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we run off hydro power or wind power.

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So the electricity we have is

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sustainable and renewable.

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So, of course,

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that's the most sustainable

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we can do right now for us."

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This is Johan Norberg,

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a scholar of aviation

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and one of the only people

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flying e-planes every day.

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We're at an aviation school in Sweden,

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where future pilots are being trained

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in flying electric planes.

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"We want to sort of

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lead the industry into something new

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and show that it's possible

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to train new pilots

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with high quality

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but in a sustainable way."

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"I mean, you sound quite confident

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that it's going to happen."

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"I feel confident in a way

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that I'm an electrical engine er as well.

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And one major difference

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compared to maybe 10 years ago was

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that there is proper money

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being put into [it]."

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That's because

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if we get electric engines right,

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we'll win the efficiency game.

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Electric engines can be three times

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more efficient than those

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that use fossil fuels,

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and of course they don't degrade

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the air quality during operation.

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The Pipistrel Velis they fly here

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 doesn't need much electricity.

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It takes around

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an hour and a half to charge,

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on which it can fly 45 minutes

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with a reserve of 30% battery.

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It's mostly used for pilot training

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or privately.

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Skellefteä airport has

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a 1 megawatt charging station

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which enough to charge

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a small fleet of electric planes

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at the same time.

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"It's like a bathtub to get in –

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so ass first is easiest."

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"I'm ready!"

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"All right, let's go!"

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"Wahayy! Oh my God!"

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"Yeah, it's fast."

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"Oh my God, it's really fast!"

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This is a super light plane,

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but it can only carry two people

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with no hand luggage.

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To go any bigger,

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e-planes are faced

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with a big problem:

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heavy batteries.

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Even though there have been

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a lot of advancements in batteries,

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we actually haven't come that far.

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We've crossed the threshold for cars.

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Roughly, for an electric Chevrolet Bolt to drive

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the distance a Honda Civic could

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on a full tank of fuel

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the battery would need to be

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17 times heavier.

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And cars can just stay on the ground,

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so the weight doesn't matter so much.

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But for a Boeing 747 to fly

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from say London to Istanbul,

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batteries would need to be

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this much heavier than a full tank.

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This just can't work,

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since it would be

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ten times heavier

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than the heaviest payload ever lifted.

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"When you are storing energy,

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you need a very high level

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of energy density."

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That's Scott Cary,

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head of the airports program

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at the US Department of Energy's

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National Renewable Energy Lab.

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"And petroleum and petroleum-related products

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or petroleum-derived products

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like biofuels

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have a really high energy density."

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When compared

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to the energy density of traditional fuel,

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batteries fair very poorly,

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coming in at only 2%.

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But conventional aircrafts

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we are flying today

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are built for jet fuel.

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It all started with a "design-off"

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in the 1950s,

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between propeller planes

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that were more popular at the time,

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and turbine engines like this.

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"The performance characteristics

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between those two aircraft, were:

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the turbine was slightly faster

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but it could not go as far.

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And you know, you got marginal gains

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by doing that.

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And then 5 years later

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they figured out for different sizes,

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for different configurations,

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all of a sudden

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it made sense to use these

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because of how light

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you can make those turbines."

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Over time this turbine,

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or "tube and wing" design

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became vastly more efficient –

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a clear winner of the race.

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Today's jetliners burn

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almost 50% less fuel

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per passenger-kilometer

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than they did 50 years ago:

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with the help of better engines,

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improved aerodynamics and

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a lot of other often invisible changes.

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But the thing is,

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this design has peaked in a way.

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It's very hard to become

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more carbon efficient

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unless they squeeze

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even more people onto already

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very tight planes.

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So governments and many in the industry

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are going back to the drawing board

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to re-design.

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In another 1950s-style design-off.

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"It's a really, really interesting time

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in that sense

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because things are up for grabs again."

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This is Tom Budd

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an aviation expert who looks at

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on-the-ground infrastructure

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to support the transition

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by working together with Heathrow airport.

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"We looked at two main modes of operation

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for doing that.

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One which was a battery charging system.

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So, where the battery would

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remain fixed within the aircraft.

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You would plug it in

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as if you would like a normal device,

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you would just charge it."

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This would be the simplest way,

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operationally-speaking.

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But they also found that charging

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would waste precious time,

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when current air traffic relies

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on a quick turnaround.

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Planes would occupy limited space

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in the airport.

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And of course,

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the amount of power needed

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would take away significantly

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from the city’s grid.

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"The second, sort of,

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mode of operation that we looked at

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was a battery swapping system.

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And that would be where you

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would have pre charged batteries

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and then when an aircraft came in,

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you would remove the battery

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from the airframe

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and then swap it with one

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that had already been pre-charged."

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This would save space and time

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but would require a lot of specialization,

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which we currently don't have anywhere.

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And it would be a big risk –

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meddling with an airframe

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is always dangerous

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and there's also

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the major risk of fires

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from holding so many batteries

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in one place.

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"So of the two systems

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we favored

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the battery charging system,

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but we were very aware

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of the potential limitations

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that that could pose."

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So, not easy.

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"Oh my God!"

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"Yeah, I mean you can fly if you want."

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"No!

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What do I do?"

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"No hands!"

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"If you want, the nose can also go down..."

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"I don't!"

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"You push the stick forward – if you want to..."

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"No please take it back!

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That was too much power,

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I can’t handle that."

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Pipistrels were the first planes

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to be certified.

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But this is another huge challenge

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that aviation has compared to cars –

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being certified for safety.

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So everything takes time: for R&D,

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testing including for battery safety,

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and the years-long certification processes.

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But this January, the European Parliament

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pushed for the idea

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of more e-planes

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for short and mid-range flights.

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This is part of a wider goal

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to cut 90% of emissions

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from transport by 2050.

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"All right!"

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"Thank you, that was great."

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The company that made the Pipistrel

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is now working on a 4-seater plane.

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And there already bigger ones:

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A plane called Alice –

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that could carry nine passengers

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and two crew members,

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seems to be close to commercialization,

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promising to fly around 400 km.

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"Heart Aerospace" in Sweden

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has a proof-of-concept aircraft

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that could fly 25 passengers up to 800km by 2026.

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"When you look at, if you think about...

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there are existing cargo routes

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that use small aircraft.

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There are existing communities

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that their only connection

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is a nine-seat aircraft.

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Unless they take a ferry

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for four or six hours

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type of a situation.

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Those are real existing routes

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that have to be either subsidised

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or paid for by communities."

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This is the main application so far

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and it is significant.

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In 2020 the US spent $326 million

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to subsidize the costs of aircraft

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to smaller airports

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that don't see a profit.

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Air ambulances, air taxis

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and small cargo planes

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also only need smaller aircraft.

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DHL has ordered twelve planes

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for low-emissions postal deliveries

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which can help local noise

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and air quality too.

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But let's put this all in perspective.

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With everything

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that electrification can do now –

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based on current battery tech

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and operational challenges – a study by

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the International Center on Clean Aviation

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estimates that electric aircraft

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could cover 9% of the commuter market.

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That's flights with more

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than 19 passengers

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and distances shorter than 500 km.

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But this only accounts for

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0.002% of global aviation.

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By 2050, they estimate

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it could be up to 0.2%,

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which is still small

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when we're talking about

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carbon emissions.

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But this is purely electric

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we are talking about.

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"You could also have versions of hybrid.

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So you could have a serious hybrid,

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which is where essentially

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fuel is used to power an electric motor,

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which then powers the aircraft.

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So you're using fuel

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to charge a battery essentially.

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And then you also have

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what are called parallel hybrids,

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which is where you have

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the electric motor

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and the fuel source

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so kerosene or hydrogen

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both being used for propulsion."

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I can't imagine this tiny plane

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getting much bigger

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in the next few years,

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but the hybrid argument

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really makes sense.

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The IATA estimates that hybrids

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will be the next leap

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in aviation in the 2030s –

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with new designs

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replacing the "tube and wing" –

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and this will contribute

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to a 40% reduction in emissions by 2050.

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Longer flights will most likely use biofuels,

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with some parts of the plane electrified

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and some use of hydrogen.

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The Pipistrel is a small step

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but gives hope for the potential

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of the diversity technologies

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that we are going to need.

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"So what do you think of this cute little plane,

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and the future of planes like this?

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Let us know in the comments section below

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and come back every Friday for more videos."