# The promise of energy-efficient battery-powered urban aircraft

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.09513 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09513/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jun 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Prescribing Optimal Health-Aware Operation for Urban Air Mobility with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.08497/) (2024)
- [eVTOL Aircraft Energy Overhead Estimation under Conflict Resolution in High-Density Airspaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.06093/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Improvements in rechargeable batteries are enabling several electric urban air mobility (UAM) aircraft designs with up to 300 miles of range with payload equivalents of up to 7 passengers. We find that novel UAM aircraft consume between 130 Wh/passenger-mile up to ~1,200 Wh/passenger-mile depending on the design and utilization, relative to an expected consumption of over 220 Wh/passenger-mi for terrestrial electric vehicles and 1,000 Wh/passenger-mile for combustion engine vehicles. We also find that several UAM aircraft designs are approaching technological viability with current Li-ion batteries, based on the specific power-and-energy while rechargeability and lifetime performance remain uncertain. These aspects highlight the technological readiness of a new segment of transportation.