MEMS Seminar: Alan H. Epstein (MIT/Pratt & Whitney), "Batteries, Airliners and Money"

Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Spring 2025 Seminar Series, welcomes Alan H. Epstein, R.C. Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Emeritus (MIT), who will give a talk entitled, "Batteries, Airliners, and Money."

ABSTRACT: In recent years there has been much excitement over the possibility of battery energy storage replacing aircraft fuel, both to reduce aviation's environmental impact and to enable new civil aviation markets. Interest in commuter, regional, and narrowbody airliners has been driven by global warming concerns, while excitement over electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft is focused on opening new markets for aviation. Since the useful energy density of current batteries are more than an order of magnitude lower than that of fuels now used or contemplated, much attention has been paid to the battery energy density needed to yield ranges useful in various aircraft markets. This lecture examines how characteristics of known battery chemistries can influence electric aircraft design, cost, and environmental impact. The focus is on battery power for scheduled airlines since they produce the vast majority of aviation's environmental impact. Themes include the importance of operational constraints on economics, the treatment of uncertainty in engineering decision making, and how technology might change the outcome.

BIO: DR. ALAN EPSTEIN joined the faculty at MIT in 1980 where he is now the R.C. Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Emeritus. Starting in 2007, he was the Vice President Technology and Environment at Pratt & Whitney, retiring in 2018. Dr. Epstein has published and lectured widely on aerospace technology, microsystems, and the environment, and has testified to Congress on these topics. He has served on many advisory panels including as the chair of the NASA Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, chair of the Board on Army Science and Technology, and a member of the NASA Advisory Council. Dr. Epstein is a member U.S. National Academy of Engineering and chair of its Aerospace Section. He is an Honorary Fellow of the AIAA, a fellow of the ASME and a fellow of the UK Royal Aeronautical Society.