A company has revealed its plans to have commercial electric planes running from London to Paris within 10 years.
The extremely ambitious goal is for the planes to take up to 150 passengers on journeys of up to 300 miles.
It could revolutionise air travel, and why not aim big?
Wright Electric is the name of the company behind this idea, which I love given that the Wright Brothers were the first people to fly a plane.
It is easy to doubt whether they will be able to achieve their goals given that electric cars have barely made any in-roads into the mainstream vehicle market, despite them being around for years.
The company is also banking on the development of battery technology to continue apace, and you would think it would take an inordinate amount of power just to get an aeroplane off the ground.
You can also imagine people just generally being a bit freaked out by being in an aeroplane that doesn’t make much noise. Would it not be scary to be in an aeroplane that barely makes a sound? You would feel like you were in a floating tub.
However, this lack of noise is precisely why they would be fantastic for people who live near airports.
The lack of fuel needed would also drop the price of air travel by a drastic amount because no jet fuel would be needed.
Easyjet have expressed an interest in this technology, which makes sense given that they are a budget airline who allow people on smaller financial incomes to travel.
It all adds up to an exciting time for the aviation industry, with plans to more than half the travel time between London and New York currently underway by a company called Boom. It is hoped that the eight-hour journey could be reduced to just three and a half hours.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39350054