Electric aviation covers battery-electric, hybrid-electric and hydrogen-electric aircraft, plus electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) designs for regional and urban routes. The core constraint is energy density: a current lithium-ion pack stores roughly 250-300 Wh/kg once cooling, structure and safety margin are counted, against about 12,000 Wh/kg for jet fuel – and unlike fuel, a battery does not get lighter as it discharges. That single ratio explains why the only type-certified electric aeroplane in the world is a two-seat trainer, why the credible next step is a five-seat short-haul aircraft, and why every proposed electric airliner carries a fuel-burning range extender. This is the site’s authority area. Start with the hub, Zero-carbon aviation: what actually works and what is certified, then the two live trackers – the eVTOL certification tracker and the electric and hydrogen aircraft tracker. Every figure in this section is dated and traced to a regulator document, a statistical agency or a company filing, and manufacturer claims are labelled as claims.
Work out the CO2e of a flight per passenger using the UK government’s published conversion factors. Shows which factor it applied, lets you switch the non-CO2 multiplier off, and explains why a short hop is worse per kilometre than long-haul.
Aviation is 2.5% of global CO2 but about 3.5% of the warming effect once contrails are counted. The four routes to lower-emission flight, what each can and cannot do, and which aircraft are actually certified — with dated sources.
Exactly one electric aeroplane holds a type certificate anywhere in the world. This tracker lists the programmes with verifiable regulatory milestones, the battery arithmetic that limits them, and what the next certificate is likely to be.
One eVTOL carries paying passengers today and it is not the one you think. Programme-by-programme certification status for Joby, Archer, EHang, Beta, Wisk, Vertical, Eve, Supernal, Volocopter and Lilium, each row traced to a dated source.
Last updated: August 31, 2026 — figures from Our World in Data, ATAG, IATA and peer-reviewed radiative-forcing research. This page collects the key aviation emissions…
Hydrogen aviation is the branch of zero-carbon flight that stores energy in hydrogen instead of batteries — either feeding fuel cells that drive electric motors,…
An electric aircraft flies on electric motors instead of a piston or turbine engine, with the energy stored in batteries or, in a few designs,…
Contrail avoidance may be the cheapest large-scale climate lever humanity has barely started using. By nudging a small share of flights a few hundred metres…
Contrails, NOx and soot cause roughly two-thirds of aviation’s climate impact. A 2026 science guide to aviation non-CO2 effects: radiative forcing data, the 80/2 rule, contrail-avoidance trials, SAF, and EU regulation.
Thermal Safety and Structural Integration in Aerospace 3. Global Ecosystem, Research…