Alright, so maybe that's a stretch. However, a Japanese pilot recently flew in an airplane that ran on simple AA alkaline batteries. Of course, the plane just had one person (the pilot) who weighed 63 kg, and the plane itself weighed 44 kg (total of about 235 pounds), and it only went 1,283 feet before the batteries died.

It took 160 AA batteries to accomplish the feat. Of course this is really just to make a fun headline. It would take about a million batteries just to fly halfway across the U.S. at that rate, which only takes about $7,500 in jet fuel. However, if you have a 1/4 mile commute to work and a basement full of batteries, you could take advantage of this technology. Regardless, it's an interesting story. I wonder if next we'll see a plane that can fly via an AC adapter. Bring out the extension cables!

Scotsman via The Inquirer

Report Published by: Mark Raby