As I was on a binge watch mode on YouTube the other day, I came across an interview video of Elon Musk, where he was talking about electric planes. Then I came across yet another one from the 'up next' section where he was again mentioning electric planes.

This got me interested and thinking. Our cars are going electric for sure, it's just a matter of time. Could the same happen to planes as well? Is it even possible and given Musk's interest, would he actually venture into doing it himself?

I mean, with Tesla, he has electric vehicles nailed down and with SpaceX, he has aerospace technology. So, could he combine the know-how from these two companies to create an electric plane that would be better than the current planes we have?

Apparently, he is highly looking forward to it and if there were more hours in a day, he would probably have started by now. He even says in the interview videos that he has a 'design' for one.

Supersonic Electric Planes

Now, I do not know anything about how planes work, so I am going by what Musk says in the videos and I think he has at least some credibility given that the guy knows rocket physics and helps in designing the rockets at SpaceX.

His argument for transforming today's planes into electric ones is that the latter would be much more efficient, faster, quieter, have lower cost of operation and be better for the environment. He also points out that innovation is not happening fast enough in this space, as plane designers and manufacturers focus on incremental updates.

This is where the electric planes would revolutionise the industry, as according to Musk, they would be several generations more advanced. He also claims that he has a design that he has been working on for quite some time, for a supersonic electric plane that can do vertical takeoff and landing.

Supersonic would mean much faster travel and time savings and vertical takeoff and landing would reduce the need for large runways. Unfortunately though, Musk has no plans in the present to materialise his design into a real world product.

He says, "I wish somebody would do that. But if somebody doesn't do that, maybe at some point in the future, I will." It would certainly be tricky as problems with range and safety on something this new and high-tech would be really difficult to solve, but I think in the coming decades, it will be possible.