According to Zunum Aero, the ZA10 will have a hybrid-electric range of 700 miles and a speed of up to 340 miles per hour. The direct cost per seat and mile is said to be 8 cents or 250 dollars per hour. Emissions and noise levels would be 80% lower than those of conventional aircraft. Boeing recently announced its intention to work with Japanese companies to realize electric flying.

"The system is innovative and realistic," says Logan Jones, Managing Director of Boeing HorizonX, one of Zunum's investors. "The company is building on proven technologies and we see it as a world leader in the field of electric flight."

Zunum itself wants to give new impetus to flying with the new hybrid-electric aircraft. They could breathe new life into previously underutilized airports because they are quiet and can reach airports that are close to the final destination of the journey - at lower costs than before.

Faster and cheaper regional flights

Getting from San José to the Los Angeles area would take 2 hours and 15 minutes from the airports in Palo Alto, San Carlos, Hayward or Reid to Santa Monica, Burbank, Hawthorne or El Monte. Today, it would take 4 hours 40 minutes. In addition, the one-way flight would only cost 120 dollars - significantly less than today's price.

"This aircraft will change the way we live and work," says Matt Knapp, founder and chief engineer of Zunum Aero.

The start-up company Wright is also working on a hybrid-electric aircraft designed for 9 seats. Wright is working together with easyJet. Wright's actual goal is to develop a 150-seat electric aircraft the size of a 737, which will be used for flights of less than 300 miles

A few years ago,Siemens developed an electric motor that delivers around 260 kW of continuous mechanical power at a weight of 50 kg. Further improvements are on the way. Together with Airbus, a hybrid aircraft with 60 to 100 seats is to be developed by 2035. Rolls Royce is developing the hybrid E-Fan X drive (2 MW) in collaboration with Airbus and Siemens; the demonstrator is due to be ready in 2020 and a production-ready model is planned for 2025.

Superconductivity makes electric flight possible

Another interesting technology could contribute to optimizing the electric motor on this scale: high-temperature superconductivity (HTS). "HTS wires achieve much higher current densities and therefore twice as high power densities as conventional electric motors. This opens up completely new possibilities for machines in the MW range for electric aircraft engines," says Werner Prusseit, CEO of Theva, manufacturer of HTLS wires. Oswald, for example, is working on such motors in a project with Rolls Royce. "We want to develop a 1 MW motor with a superconducting rotor and stator that achieves 20 kW/kg. This would be impossible to achieve with conventional technology without superconductivity," says Thomas Reis, Head of Superconductor Motor Development at Oswald. "Electric drives for larger aircraft will not be possible without superconductivity," explained Detlev Konigorski from Airbus at the recent ZIEHL VI Conference 2018 ('The future and innovation of energy technology with HTS') in Berlin, where the superconductor community met.