Eddy's Good News: Flying electric taxis and big changes in the battery industry

Virgin Radio

27 Sep 2023, 09:03

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 10am and 1pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Wednesday 27th September 2023

Credit: Electric air taxi by Joby Aviation

If you’re listening via the app in or around Dayton Ohio, there’s a new factory that’s hiring. Two thousand jobs and what they’re building is great news. Taxis. Electric taxis. Electric flying taxis that can take off and land vertically!

It’s a momentous moment for aviation. The legendary Wright Brothers, who invented and bravely flew the first powered aircraft in the U.S. were from Dayton and opened the first American aeroplane factory there in 1910.

A stone’s throw away, Joby Aviation’s new factory will have the capacity to deliver up to 500 aircraft per year and these things are so cool. 100% electric and instead of one helicopter blade, they have six smaller rotors that’ll give greater manoeuvrability and safety. They’ll take a pilot plus four passengers, up to 100 miles at up to 200 mph and in comparative silence too. The plan is to revolutionise urban transport and UBER are already involved.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

Credit: NASA researchers John Connell and Yi Lin (seated) from SABERS - NASA

We are almost all obsessed by batteries, the batteries on our phone, the battery in our car if it’s electric or a plug-in hybrid and currently, pun intended, all these batteries are lithium-ion.

These supposedly state-of-the-art batteries contain liquids that make them vulnerable to overheating, fire, explosion and loss of charge over time.

So guess who has come the rescue to invent a better battery? Spoiler alert, it’s not Elon Musk, it’s NASA, who have a budget and a remit to find sustainable solutions for terrestrial air travel. Say hello to NASA’s SABERS battery (Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety). They stack sulphur and selenium cells onto each other in a modular way, without the need for casings, which saves 30-40% of the weight, but even better is the battery output which, even now, is double and even triple the power of Elon’s finest battery in the most expensive electric cars. They’re now at safety testing stage so watch this space!

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org