AWARD YEAR
2021
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Sustainable Cities & Communities
KEYWORDS
electric vehicle, planes, air traffic
COUNTRY
Poland
DESIGNED BY
Michał Bonikowski
WEBSITE
https://www.bonikowski.eu/work/eatherone
Earther One
A conceptual design about what would happen if planes were electric
I enjoy all attempts to revolutionize flying. I have been thinking a lot about this lately, and what could happen if Airbus would like to create an electric plane. We all know that the main problem is the weight of a battery, but. The air is full of electricity, which can be recovered by the friction generated by the flying plane. In wings, during the flight, instead of fuel tanks, triboelectric nanogenerators can be installed, which, using the vibrations of the structure and friction generated by the bending of wings during the flight, can generate the energy needed to power several smaller electric motors. The energy efficiency of such systems is already large enough to be used in this kind of machine. In this case, the battery pack needed for carrying should only satisfy the need for takeoff and landing. The flight itself would be able to generate the energy needed to maintain it and most likely to charge the batteries.