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Aaron Turpen    November 14, 2013 - 11:56PM

It's technically possible to run any machine using a combustion engine on an electric motor. There are designs for small planes using electric motors to power props and there have been reports off and on over the years of the Air Force and Navy studying electric turbofans using fuel cells as the power source. The trouble is that, as Amused wrote, batteries start getting heavier than liquid fuel very quickly and the amount of thrust required to lift a large jetliner off the ground is immense. A Top Fuel dragster produces more thrust than a 727 at takeoff, but only has to do it for about a quarter mile whereas the aircraft must do it for hundreds of miles at a time. Therein lies the problem. Technically, anything can be run on electricity, but that doesn't mean it's always real-world feasible to do so.

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