I don't think EDFs will take over but they will live in harmony with turbine powered jets. At the field where I fly, my 155 mph edf powered Maverick flies with the turbine powered jets. I think the turbine powered jets are cool and the turbine pilots think my edf is cool and we get along and have fun. The one thing I keep hearing though is talk about the cost of batteries. When you think about the cost of batteries you have to put it in prespective. Batteries are nothing more than fuel in a solid form that you pay for up front. If you take care of them (charge and balance them properly) you can expect to get 150 to 200 cycles. At $600 for a 10S pack that comes out to $3 to $4 per flight. What is the cost per flight for kero and oil?

By the way, in regards to the comment about edf being for small planes. That may be the case today but by the end of the year Aeronaut will be releasing their TF 8000 fan. It is 145mm and tests with the protoype is producing 27 pounds of thrust. Installed in a plane with good ducting one can probably expect 22 to 25 pounds of thrust. The word is in 2008 they will have a couple of scale airframes for the fan.

Kirk