The Future of Aviation Is Steam Power

With viable electric aircraft for flight training still years away, what’s the real alternative fuel?

Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 09:44 AM ET

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The fatal flaw standing in the way of effective use of electric-powered aircraft is very well understood and easily summed up in two words: energy density. [Photo: Air]

Key Takeaways:

The article criticizes current electric aircraft development as an "investor-targeted fraud," akin to Theranos, due to fundamental technological limitations rather than viable product potential.
The primary obstacle for electric aircraft is the significantly lower energy density of batteries compared to aviation fuel, drastically limiting flight time, range, and payload.
Electric aircraft face major practical challenges including poor battery performance in extreme temperatures, long recharge times, and the absence of beneficial byproducts like cabin heat from their power source.
Future technologies like solid-state batteries and hydrogen fuel cells are either insufficient, too costly, or face substantial technical and infrastructural hurdles, making widespread electric aviation a distant and uncertain prospect.

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Attention, investors: I’ve decided to design and build an airplane powered entirely by steam engine. The target market for such an aircraft is, of course, flight schools and any pilots looking to avoid the high cost of avgas by chopping their own firewood. Exciting, huh? I’m just a few years from building my conforming prototype and looking for investors with an insatiable appetite for socially responsible nonsense and too polite to wonder out loud how long it takes the boiler to build up a head of steam.

Yeah, sticks of wood are a kind of fossil fuel, but they are unleaded, so my engine is definitely greener than yours, sort of. And yes, a steam engine can spin a propeller. Now, enough of your pesky questions.