What is building a large scale battery-powered aircraft was more feasible than originally thought?

Our guest on this episode of the podcast, Daniel Rosen Jacobson co-founder and co-CEO of Elysian Aircraft, has come on the podcast to explain how asking the right questions and conducting scientific research laid the groundwork for the truly ambitious project that is the E9X electric airliner.

While most electric aircraft projects have focused on the development of smaller aircraft, Elysian Aircraft is taking on the mainstream air travel market with a zero-emissions aircraft concept capable of carrying up to 90 passengers over distances of 1,000 kilometers.

This is certainly a bold proposition, but one that, Daniel explains, is well grounded in science and engineering principles laid out by two papers co-authored by researchers at the Technical University of Delft, in The Netherlands.

What’s more, Elysian Aircraft is backed by Panta Holdings, a company that is no strangers to the world of aviation since it is the owner of Fokker Services Group, which is the remaining part of the iconic Dutch aircraft maker of the same name, now providing a range of MRO and other technical services to aircraft operators.

Elysian’s take on the future of zero emissions aircraft has also attracted the interest of consolidated industry players such as the Air France-KLM group and leasing firm TrueNoord, both of which have signed collaboration agreements with Elysian Aircraft with a view to potentially using the E9X aircraft one day in the future.

This will, for now, have to wait a few years, as Elysian Aircraft refines its concept and builds and tests its first prototypes.

In the meantime, though, we can listen to Elysian Aircraft’s co-founder and co-CEO, Daniel Rosen Jacobson, explaining the key elements of this projected aircraft and the role he expects it to play in the future of commercial aviation!