NASA plans to launch electric planes in 20 years

In the future, air travel may not be accompanied by roaring jet engines, but quietly humming an electric motors. Indeed, if NASA has anything to say about it, electric airlines could be buzzing across the skies in 20 years, and hybrid planes a decade sooner.

With all the cutting-edge space tech NASA’s been imagining lately, it’s easy to forget the agency’s aeronautics side. You know, the guys working on remotely operated solar-powered planes and electric drones that switch from chopper to flight mode in mid-air. But lest you think the aeronautics engineers at NASA are just building a bunch of giant, carbon-neutral toys, their recently released technology roadmapindicates otherwise. Eventually, the space agency would like to wean the entire commercial flight industry off petroleum, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The commercial supply of energy and its process stability remain a critical business concern; fuel currently represents the largest operating cost for the US airlines,” NASA writes. “NASA’s challenge is to enable the use of readily-available, low-carbon fuels for traditional propulsion systems and investigate alternative propulsion systems for the aircraft of the future.”