Quiet revolution: bringing electric planes to market

The eagerly gathering crowds, the mid-weight politicians and minor celebrities, the unpredictable weather: this could have been the first public test flight of any new aircraft. But there was one obvious difference: the noise, or rather lack of it. Instead of a roar as the two-seater aircraft reached take-off velocity, there was merely a buzz little louder than that of a hair dryer. And once the zippy craft was airborne, it was virtually silent.

We’ve become used to the idea that electric cars will be a key tool in the fight against climate change, even if we are a long way off putting one in every garage. But the idea of electric planes barely registers, even though they’ve existed since the 1970s.

The Solar Impulse, the electric propeller-driven aircraft set to circumnavigate the Earth using nothing but the power of the sun, may capture the imagination but is hardly a model to replace the thousands of kerosene-fuelled jets that criss-cross the globe daily. Instead, biofuels and greater efficiency are usually seen as the way we might reduce aircraft emissions.