Electric helicopter and drone developer Luminati Aerospace has urged eVTOL aircraft developers to take a fresh look at its approach to batteries, warning that the risk of fire has not been adequately addressed and offering a solution in the shape of its own technology. “Automotive battery technology is completely unsuitable for aerospace,” the company's CEO, Daniel Preston, maintained during a July 27 briefing during the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
“Power density-wise, one ton of avgas [fuel] equals 200 tons of the best lithium polymer batteries in the world,” he said. “Lithium polymer [lipo] batteries are not just worse than petroleum, they are monumentally worse than petroleum. The only reason people are interested in electric aviation is that the motors have incredible power densities. A piston engine is half a horsepower per pound and with a turbine, you can be one to two horsepower per pound. On our electric motors, we are at 12 horsepower per pound. So, the first rule in aerospace is that even bricks fly with enough power. Electric motors can make anything fly."
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