Between drones and electric airplanes, the field of aviation is rapidly advancing. But airports across Appalachia are struggling to keep up.
“These small airports lack the electric utility capacity not just to charge an airplane, but to charge a car,” said Brent Lane, senior executive in residence with Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs. “Or for that matter, to run the coffee pot while the air conditioner is on.”
Lane is one of a team of Ohio University researchers working to prepare Appalachian airports for the future.
They just received a $500,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal economic development agency, to work with 36 airports in Ohio, Kentucky and North Carolina to investigate what they need to be ready for a more electric future.
Appalachia’s airports
There are thousands of general aviation airports in rural America — more than 200 in Appalachia alone. These airports aren’t as big as the centers in Cincinnati and Cleveland, and they generally don’t serve everyday travelers.
“When I talk to somebody about these electric airplanes, I start by telling them aviation is already important to your community and you don't see it because it's not the type that gets a ticket,” Lane said. “You and I could be completely oblivious to it because it doesn’t serve commercial airline passengers.”
Instead, these general aviation airports play a different role: they serve smaller planes carrying shipments of supplies to the region and offering emergency transportation.
“[They’re] a huge infrastructure asset. And these more mobile, more efficient forms of aviation are going to allow us to get more use out of them,” Lane said, referencing electric planes.
But he worries Appalachia’s small airports aren’t able to adequately prepare for that future.
“They simply aren't part of the discussion and are not being prepared for a role in electric aviation,” he said. “We started out wanting to make sure that Appalachia wasn't left out. But we actually think our Appalachian airports could be the leaders in this.”
The future of electric planes in Appalachia
Lane says Appalachia is uniquely situated to get an early jump on electric aircraft.
The technology to send commercial jets across the Atlantic Ocean on electricity alone has a ways to go. But because Appalachia’s airports serve smaller planes, relying on electric aircraft is a lot more feasible.
“There's an emphasis on the sustainability of aviation, where most of the attention is on large commercial aircraft,” Lane said. “But I think a lot of the activity is still in general aviation.”
Additionally, the airspace in rural Appalachia is less congested than in major metros, Lane said, so experimenting with drones and electric planes wouldn’t interfere as much with existing air traffic.
But Lane said one issue could prevent the region from quickly adapting to the advancing technology: its lack of existing charging infrastructure. If the region could invest in that, he believes it could see tremendous benefits from electric aircraft.
Not only is the technology cleaner and more sustainable, but in a spread-out region that can be difficult to traverse by land, electric aircraft could speed things up.
“We could deliver things faster and to more places that otherwise are isolated by limited ground transportation,” Lane said.
“One of the great examples is being able to deliver something across the Ohio River, rather than having to take the road to the bridge for miles in either direction. So there's some rather obvious and dramatic opportunities to accelerate delivery of things that are high value and time critical, like medical supplies.”
Plus, there’s an added benefit — electric airplanes are quiet, and that goes a long way in public acceptance, Lane said.
“If you live in the right part of Ohio, you’re already seeing [this technology],” he said. “There are existing drone delivery demonstrations going on here. One of the leading manufacturers of electric aircraft is developing a manufacturing facility near Dayton.”
“So this is a future that, if you're in the right place, has already happened in your community, but it's going to be happening in many more communities within the next decade.”
He wants to make sure Appalachian communities are ready for the change.
