...but only momentarily. But all of this went literally over my head fifteen years ago, when three projects endeavoured to fly the English Channel on batteries alone so as to recreate the same sort of competition practically a century prior and at the dawn of powered flight.
Corporations at the dawn of this century are as unpopular as they've ever been, tho' not necessarily the individuals associated with their creation... Jobs, Musk et al.
But here is an example of two giant corporations in the form of Airbus and Siemens trying to quash the 'little guy' and happily losing in the process. Not that they care, but good for us all to see them fucked over even if only occasionally.
Circa 2012 in short, Airbus developed the E-Fan with which to mount the challenge and lead to a sales stream in the aftermath; while in Slovenia Pipistrel had prepared an electric aircraft to do the same thing and in fact a return trip on a single charge.
Set to do so a day or two prior to Airbus' attempt, Siemens would be 'persuaded' no doubt to go to court to prevent the use of their motor in the Pipistrel because it had not been developed for over-water use.
Nonetheless beating them all to the attempt was the venerable electrical Cri-Cri that made the return crossing, they knew not how. Fact was it had been launched over land at either end off the back of a bi-plane because as Airbus had discovered, the taxi, take-off and climb phases of a flight crucify the available charge from the get-go.
All ended happily however because Pipistrel went on to develop their own motor for the first electric aircraft to be certified in Europe, whilst variations of the Cri-Cri still remain as popular as ever amongst recreational flyers and airshows.
Airbus and Siemens folded the E-Fan project.
Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
