Very small Jet

Airplane desing - Is it possible to run a very small jet with battery?

It is possible to operate a very small jet with battery? Using the term "jet" is deceptive because a jet propulsion system needs the burning of hydrocarbons to generate warmth, to emit waste gases, to propel a supercharger and to generate immediate thrusts and/or to propel a cooling ventilator. In all likelihood, an electrically driven airplane motor would only directly propel a duct ventilator with electrical energy.

In 2014, the Airbus E-Fan was the first all-electric twin-engine airplane to pass through the British Canal. While I don't know what the reach was, I suppose it was very brief. After an extensive soil test drive in 2020, the demonstration of the E-Fan x electrical engineering system is expected to take to the air on a Boeing 146 flight test stand, where one of the aircraft's four natural gasturbine thrusters will be substituted by a two-megawatt electrical drive.

Provision will be made to substitute a second LPG engine with an electrical engine as soon as system readiness has been demonstrated. It uses a two-megawatt alternator that drives the channeled ventilator. In other words, the sources of electricity, or to be more precise the storage device, are hydrocarbons, not accumulators. This airplane is designed for the development of electrical drive systems; it is not a prototypical vehicle for people.

Building a very small powerplant with some base parts.

However, a small turbo is probably also a very bad technological option (also known as wasting your precious resources ) to cope with the technological changes that lie ahead. One has to realize how terribly inefficient it is to run a throttle valve under most " ordinary " conditions.

It burns much quicker than similar reciprocating motors (so you need to drive something that transports a great deal of fuel), it requires more service (which means less uptime), this service is much more costly ($$$$), and it is much more "spirited" because relatively small/minor fluctuations in manufacture and operation that would go unnoticed in a reciprocating internal combustion engine or electrical drive can lead to a disastrous and explosively failed turbocharger.

Here is a replica of a smaller turbine: There are two crucial problems with regard to turbo boost performance in a turbocharger. Note the very small clearance between the rotor (spinner disc in the middle) and the casing (the casing running along the rim of the rotor).

When there is more room between the two, all the compressed exhaust from the rotating supercharger simply escapes through the clearance between the supercharger wheel and the casing. Note the small crevice between the tip of the rotor vanes and the casing. Here the same issue exists: the warm (also known as exploding) atmosphere likes to flee without "doing any work" by utilizing the available clearance between fan vanes and casing.