Want to See a Big Tesla Fly?

Dean Sigler Batteries, Hybrid Aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Teslarati, the forum for Tesla fans, includes a fascinating concept for an electric/jet airliner, as proposed by Peter Egan, a web-site member from Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia.  His proposal could be applied to smaller jet airliners in anything up to the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 class. He uses a Bombardier CJR1000 100-passenger regional jet for his example, and shows a large motor pod-elevator replacement on each side of the fin, with counter-rotating propellers on either side of the rudder.  (Whether this arrangement would be aerodynamically or structurally sound remains open to investigation.)  His concept drawing includes the existing General Electric-CF34-8C5A1 turbofans for comparison, but they would be removed. The GE engines put out 13,630 pounds (60.6 kiloNewtons) of thrust at takeoff.  Peter substitutes a pair of twin- motor/counter-rotating propeller units, each with: two permanent magnet electric motors, rated at 1,200 kW (1,608 hp.) continuous power, with 1,400 kW (1,876 hp.) each available for takeoff.  That totals 5,600kW (7,506 …