We'll have to watch to see where this concept goes. Yates' issue with the early return is not unusual, because despite the battery level indicator that you have on your laptop, it is not easy to figure out how much energy is really left in most batteries. Applications like motor vehicle or computer can simply be conservative, recognizing that there is ample weight budget for the unused energy, but airborne applications don't want to waste weight. They need a more precise evaluation of energy remaining. Last time I checked, the folks at NASA Dryden, right up the road from these flights, were working on a technology to do that. Meanwhile, what's all this about changing the batteries in flight?
http://phys.org/news/2012-07-record-setting-electric-airplane-mph-video.html
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