Magpie Aviation's Solution to Long-Range, Zero-Emission Flights Is 'Aerotowing'

pcmag.com:

Magpie Aviation(Opens in a new window) believes it can enable long-range, zero-emission passenger flights by using one electric aircraft to tow another.

Batteries are heavy and carry much less energy than jet fuel, which severely limits the range an electric aircraft can travel before a recharge is required. Add the weight of passengers and/or cargo into the mix and that range drops even further. As AeroTime reports(Opens in a new window), Magpie Aviation's solution is to only include enough batteries on the passenger/cargo aircraft to allow for take-off and landings "with plenty of reserve power," and then use aerotowing to pull the aricraft along using a second electric tow aircraft.

The tow aircraft would be packed full of batteries and located at a small/rural airport near the route of the main aircraft. The two aircraft then meet in the sky and connect autonomously using a cable so that the tow aircraft can pull the other along. For very long flights, multiple tow aircrafts can be used along the flight path, and Magpie believes its system will work for 80% of the world's top 100 routes.

Magpie Aviation's head of partnerships and strategy, Oliver Haas, admits it's not immediately obvious why this is a good economic solution to the problem. However, he explains in the video above that aerotowing allows carriers to fly large electric aircraft which drastically cuts down on maintenance and fuel costs compared to today's jet fuel planes.

The towing aircraft does add cost, but the simple design and ability to fly from low-cost airports means that the overall cost of using them is covered by the maintenance and fuel cost savings. However, Haas is doing these calculations based on aerotowing being used at scale, so only