Batteries, Batteries, Batteries!

July 3, 2019

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Elon Musk just reported that we will have electric-powered airplanes in five years.

OTOH, people who know batteries tell me they aren’t ready now, and won’t be ready anytime soon.

So whom should we believe?

Remember, Wernher von Braun told JFK that we could put man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s decade. Some NASA people were horrified. But NASA succeeded with a manned Moon landing a year earlier, in 1969.

Wernher von Braun was right.

There is a huge demand now for better batteries—batteries that will last longer, weigh less, put out more power, won’t catch fire, and solve all problems. We also know that battery people—as Erskine Caldwell (a relative of mine, BTW)—said, are working like “pluperfect hell” to get the job done.

Will the batteries be ready in a few years?

I dunno.

But as for me and my family, we hope they succeed.

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About the Author

Ralph Hood | Certified Speaking Professional

Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he's insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University.

Ralph Hood is also an award-winning columnist (he writes for several publications), a salesman and sales manager (he sold airplanes, for crying out loud!), a teacher (he taught college-level aviation management) and a professional public speaker who has entertained and enlightened audiences from Hawaii to Spain, and from Fairbanks to Puerto Rico.