Batteries Are Not Fuel

Abstract

The use of batteries as primary energy storage for aircraft is explored with emphasis placed on differences between their behavior and that of liquid fuels from the perspective of the conceptual aircraft designer.  A simplified battery performance model is presented sufficient to capture what is needed for conceptual aircraft design.  A series of knockdown factors is derived to isolate the variety of effects that cause a battery's installed performance in an aircraft to differ from the manufacturer's performance claims.