Future of aviation: Battery-powered planes produce zero emissions

A battery-powered plane nicknamed Alice made by Israeli company Eviation may be the future of air travel. First test flights are expected this summer, with planes in service possibly within two years – and some companies have already put in large orders.

Eviation is the Israeli company working on Alice.  See their website and the video there about Alice:

Company – Eviation

Community Spotlight: Gregory Davis - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Israel's Eviation To Deliver 12 All-Electric Cargo Planes To DHL (nocamels.com)

What percent of global fliights today are less than 100 miles and amenable to regional aviation technological developments such as electric powered commercial airplanes?

The paragraph below addresses that question:

MagniX CEO Roei Ganzarski believes airlines such as Harbour Air would prefer to convert existing planes instead of spending millions to buy new all-electric aircraft. According to him, last year, 5 percent of global flights — not including cargo and private flights — were less than 100 miles. "All of the aircraft used for these flights are perfectly suited to conversion," he’s quoted as saying.

And also:

Air Tindi, which operates scheduled and charter flights to remote communities across northern Canada from its base in Yellowknife in the country’s Northwest Territories, will provide one of its 50-seat Dash 7 aircraft to be retrofitted and available for flight testing. This will be powered by its existing Pratt & Whitney PT6 engines as well as a pair of MagniX’s Magni650 electric propulsion units.

MagniX is already working on plans to convert the smaller Beaver and Caravan aircraft to electric propulsion in partnership with operators such as Vancouver-based Harbour Air. It is also providing electric motors for its sister company Eviation’s new nine-passenger Alice aircraft.

Pavel, read again that part above about converting a 50 seat Dash 7 aircraft to electric power.  I believe that 50 passengers exceeds your arbitrary number of 1-3 passengers with 1 crewmember by a considerable per cent, but I will let you do the math.  No, the Dash 7 conversion is not a fait accompli yet, but they are working on it now as noted in the article linked below:

NASA-backed Flight Testing Will Electrify The Dash 7 Commuter AIrcraft | FutureFlight

Drawing your attention, Pavel, to the following paragraph about the future of short-haul aviation, which is linked hand and glove to the future of electric powered commercial aviation:

"Two forces are now taking hold that will dramatically change the short-haul aviation market: a change in the demand for short haul travel; and the rapid advance in electric aviation technology. In a post-COVID world, employees increasingly will work and live in remote locations, reducing the need for short haul travel. Meanwhile, the economics of electric aviation are becoming more feasible. Electric aviation has the potential to change consumer travel behavior, moving travelers out of cars and into low-carbon or zero-carbon emission quiet aircraft. This will result in lower costs and shorter travel times while using existing small airport infrastructure."

The rebirth of short haul aviation | ICF

The development of the jet engine in commercial airline application was pretty much the death knell for short haul aviation in the past and for small regional and sub-regional airports.  It was just too expensive to service these airports with commercial planes powered by expensive jet powered planes, but the development, and yes it is still "developing", of commercial electric powered aircraft is going to reverse that process and bring the dead back to life, certainly in many applications in Europe and also here in the U.S. as well as all of North and South America.  What better way to breathe new life into the corpse of short haul aviation than to do it "electrically"!

ICF Forecasts that short haul Electric Aviation represents a $52 Billion Market within 15 years

A completely different angle on the subject of electric powered commercial aircraft that both you and I have ignored is that area in between combustion engine aviation and pure electric aviation:  Hybrid Electric Aviation.  It also has a niche of its own in the future of aviation.  As an example:

Zunum Aero bets on hybrid electric engines for its small commuter jet | TechCrunch

In summary, Pavel, in my opinion your restriction to a scenario allowing for only 1-3 passengers plus 1 pilot paints a picture of electric powered commercial aviation that is completely incongruent with the facts.  JMO

Okiedo