{"id":72772,"date":"2014-11-09T15:00:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=72772"},"modified":"2014-11-09T09:08:53","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T07:08:53","slug":"what-commercial-aircraft-will-look-like-in-2050","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/72772\/what-commercial-aircraft-will-look-like-in-2050\/","title":{"rendered":"What commercial aircraft will look like in 2050"},"content":{"rendered":"

The aircraft industry is expecting a seven-fold<\/a> increase in air traffic by 2050, and a four-fold<\/a> increase in greenhouse gas emissions unless fundamental changes are made. But just how \u201cfundamental\u201d will those changes need to be and what will be their effect on the aircraft we use?<\/p>\n

The crucial next step towards ensuring the aircraft industry becomes greener is the full electrification of commercial aircraft. That\u2019s zero CO2<\/sub> and NOx<\/sub> emissions, with energy sourced from power stations that are themselves sustainably fuelled.<\/p>\n

The main technological barrier that must be overcome is the energy density of batteries, a measure of how much power can be generated from a battery of a certain weight.<\/p>\n

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said<\/a> that once batteries are capable of producing 400 Watt-hours per kilogram, with a ratio of power cell to overall mass of between 0.7-0.8, an electrical transcontinental aircraft becomes \u201ccompelling\u201d.<\/p>\n