Structural Batteries

Ever since I was a teenager there have been people saying that the days of the internal combustion engine are numbered. Now, depending on the progress of electric vehicles, it appears that the end for the internal combustion engine might be on the horizon.

The great roadblock to electric vehicles is the necessity of carrying a battery. Battery technology has not kept pace with either electric car or electronic communications technology. The two drawbacks of batteries are that they are heavy and they take time to charge.

Engineers are working on getting batteries to charge more quickly. But what if we could eliminate the weight of the battery entirely? Maybe it only requires some thinking outside the box.

Small drones fly on batteries. What if passenger jets could fly on battery power? The reason that they can't, of course, is the weight of the battery that would be necessary. The battery would be so heavy that the plane would be unable to fly. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could somehow eliminate the weight of the battery altogether?

Every battery that I have ever seen has been compact in form. It has been either cylindrical, as in flashlight batteries, or rectangular, as in lantern or automotive batteries. But the compact form is only for ease of placement and handling. There is no rule that a battery has to be of any certain form or shape.

What if we could make a jump in outside the box thinking that would effectively eliminate the weight and bulk of the battery? Most of a car is made of steel and most of a plane of aluminum. Why couldn't the elements of the battery actually be built into the structure of the car or plane so that parts of the battery would also be structural parts of the vehicle? Some parts of the vehicle would be made of battery materials.

This would effectively eliminate most or all of the weight of the battery. What could be more revolutionary than this step, which really only requires some thinking outside the box.

Of course there will be people who say that this is impossible and cannot be done. Just as there were people saying that if we were meant to fly we would have been born with wings. Just as there were people saying that electric lighting was impossible, ships could never be made out of steel, there would never be radios in cars, flying to the moon was absolutely impossible, there would never be phones that we can practically carry around, buildings higher than a few stories would collapse under their own weight, and so on...

Remember that cell phones also have room for improvement:

https://markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/cell-phone-projection.html?m=0 

My solution for global warming is simple, although that doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy, and involves the humble lawnmower:

https://markmeekprogress.blogspot.com/2009/06/solving-global-warming.html?m=0