28 December

Electric and hybrid aircraft are already on the market. They may represent a boon for flying, for ordinary people. Right now the aviation industry is heavily centralised at massive airports, which have access to the huge amount of fuel needed. But electricty is available nearly everywhere, and regional and remote airports could even generate it themselves. So instead of you needing to travel to a major airport to transfer to a flight to where you want to go in the country, every town could potentially just fly directly to any other town. Right now people travel to Melbourne or Sydney for example, if they want to fly to the Gold Coast, or somewhere else in Oz. That won’t be necessary with electric planes. When you decentralise the fuel, it decentralises the whole business model. These planes will also operate near-silently, which will be fantastic both for people living near airports, and also for people on planes, which right now are extremely noisy (very rarely mentioned). They’re also much safer, as electric motors almost never fail, and need next to zero maintenance. Two of the biggest costs for airlines are fuel and maintenance. Electric aircraft reduce these costs to almost zero. As always, follow the money, not the slogans.