By Robert McLachlan
Back in 2021 electric aircraft were a hot topic. Paul Callister and I looked at three startups (Heart Aerospace’s ES-19, Eviation’s Alice, and the Lilium Jet) to see if their claims stacked up. They all faced serious difficulties with weight, range (especially the reserve range required for safety), and unproven technology.
Two of the three (Lilium and Eviation,the latter pre-ordered by Air New Zealand) went bankrupt in February 2025, leaving only Heart Aerospace. Their ES-19 (pre-ordered by Sounds Air) has undergone two radical redesigns. In May 2024, an innovative wing strut was added and the range was halved to 200 km, extended by a serial kerosene generator (ideally used only as a reserve). Later, the wing strut disappeared, and two of the four electric motors were replaced by standard kerosene turboprops – essentially a parallel hybrid. No test aircraft has yet been flown or even built, but commercial operation is still promised for 2030.
On the policy front progress has been no better. The Climate Change Commission has made a strong recommendation to bring international aviation and shipping into New Zealand’s 2050 climate target; the government has yet to respond, and the Commission has no brief to look at the issue further. The public/private partnership Sustainable Aviation Aotearoa, established in 2022 as part of the first Emissions Reduction Plan, has yet to issue reports, advice, or communications of any kind.
This was the background in my mind as I prepared to address the Royal Aeronautical Society’s New Zealand Division on “Tech hopes for the aviation industry” on 29 May.
Please watch the video of the talk below, or read the slides.
Planetary Ecology 
Hello
I can read the slides which look great. I can’t access the video. Can you please make it available via an alternative platform?.
Thank you for these words:
“But non-existent technologies function as “technologies of prevarication”,
diminishing the perceived urgency of deploying proven (but possibly unpopular)
options now”
For a long time I’ve struggled for the words to describe the problem with the issue of perpetuating the myths/delusion around some techno fix to achieve the impossible: Aviation, as we know it, that is somehow made “sustainable”.
Unsurprisingly similar spin surrounds most if not all sectors of the current extractive based “economy”.
And unsurprising, really, when one considers the Predicament from the perspective of Planetary Ecology.
What could possibly go wrong for Earth when afflicted with a species population in plague stage; one that has access to almost unlimited energy & the ability to self organize to extract the maximum amount of energy/materials in the shortest possible time.
The ability to tell compelling abstract stories got us here. To get ourselves out of the mess we will need to start to tell the truth beginning with the need to power-down the human enterprise. (no more hyper mobility etc etc). Of course it will destroy the current “economy” but this is inevitable anyway, isn’t it?
As a speaker recently said (on Hagen’s The Great Simplification) the difference between choosing sobriété (sufficiency) and poverty, is that the former path gives us agency to choose what we manage with less-of or even manage without completely (perhaps Aviation).
It’s time to speak the truth about what the planet can tolerate; without the clutter/noise of myths around non-existent technologies. As you say they function only as “technologies of prevarication” to perpetuate BaU for as long as possible, which for Planetary Ecology will inevitably be too long/late.
Hoping for the link to the video of your talk. Cheers Warren
Thanks Warren. I have embedded the video in the post now.
Reducing emissions from aeroplanes involves trains and ships, and punitive taxes on Jet A-1.
Again, thank you for doing the work.