AirDexter380

Hey everyone!!!! Look at the second paragraph if you want to get to the point quicker...

Four months ago I have completed my Malyuta M-492 "JetLiner"- my first successful jet I have ever attempted to make. Now, I have bought some balsa and I am now outlining my newest airplane yet- a jet airliner. This I have to tell you was the most amazing project for me, because I have also included a BLS system in the wings of my aircraft. For those who don't know, BLS is a Boundary Layer Control system, which is not all as complicated as in some aircraft that use it. It basically makes a better use of the air passing over the wing, incresing lift, and also increases the maximum angle of attack of the wing. Of course, in real aviation you will fond many side-effects of this technology, but I personally am for reviving this system... once I finish university... and get into the aeronautics field...[8D].

But that isn't what the discussion is about. My question is if electricity will be the future of all the aviation? I think so. Electricity is less polluting, and just take a look at a lightning- it is maybe 50 times the energy of an Airbus A380, and yet there is only one lightining... and 50 Airbuses...[&:]??? I think electricity will be the fuel for everything in the future. I have been on one of those electricity shows in the Museum of Science. It gave me an idea... If we were only able to make a lightning inside an airplane... and guide the energy from the lightning to the turbofan engines of an airliner... yes, that could work... why not??? And what are your ideas on the electricity being the future fuel?

Keep 'em running,

AirDexter380... just Daniel for you guys...

Square Nozzle

My Feedback: (1)

Take away the unique sound of a turbine and the smell of Jet A and what have you got? Nothing in my estimation. I work in the Turbine Manufacturing and Development industry and I can safely say there is no development going on around here relating to electric powered aircraft "motors". Electricity has to come a long way to produce enough power to get an F22 flying at mach 1+++ or get a 747 off the ground with a full load of fuel and passangers. Maybe models can do it but I'll be pushing up daiseys before it's a reality in the full scale world.

HarryC

My Feedback: (1)

How will you make that much electricity on board a plane? By burning fuel or having a small nuclear power plant on board! No battery in existence has anywhere near the energy per kg of fossil fuel. Electric airliners are hundreds if not thousands of years in the future.

H

Trundle

I believe that it is quite impossible today but you need to remember how far we have came in just over 100 years. 100 years ago man had only just lifted off of the ground! We flew in planes made of balsa that had no luxuries had a tiny top speed and minute ceilings. Today we have 747s flying thousands of people every day, A 380s in the making, we have launched into space, broken the sound barrier, broken mach 2, broken mach 3 with air breathing planes, created an entire infrastructure to allow giant planes to fly us across the world, came light years in ic engine technology from where the Wright Brothers were, created jet engines, created turboprop engines, created helicopters, made stealth planes, flown solo around the world, most importantly now we have RC planes and there are probably a heap that i cannot think of right now.

100 years ago people would have said that we were crazy if we were to lift 10 people off the ground in a single aircraft. Now we can lift probably over 1000 in some planes. Considering how much we have done so far is it so hard to imagine simply making a large plane that flies on electricity in the next hundered years?

Seraphim77

Actually, a nuclear power plant is apparently in the works or being studied for UAV's..."jet" planes that can patrol and stay aloft for as long as needed. I seem to remember a fairly recent Popular Mechanics article talking about it a while ago. Of course, the politics of nuclear energy needs to be overcome before widespread adaptation can transpire. So, in that sense, there's your future electricity.

AirDexter380

John, really you are probably too much a pesimist. I have said- make a lightning inside an airplane. All that needs is just a material that can easily resist a lightning. This is a very good idea... I think. Of course, this will probably take over 20 years or so, and then... I am still young... you know.... It doesn't have to ba all that long- Wright Brothers have made a plane fly in as much as 7 years or so. So don't be pesimist, man!!! It could all happen!

What is so impossible about it John?

Daniel.

Trundle

Look up the NB-36 - Convair Nuclear Bomber 36 Peacekeeper and i cant remember the designation but the Russians also modified a Tu-95 Bear with a nuclear reactor to power both the inboard engines. There was a lot more protection on the US plane which didn't use the reactor for power. The Russian plane had a lot more flights on it and I believe that all the crew members who served aboard it have surprisingly died from some sort of radiation related disease.

patf

My Feedback: (4)

the nb 36 reactor did not power anything, just rode around. there was research into a nuclear "engine" using a reaction to superheat air but it was scrapped due to the obvious issues but only after a number of tests to prove the theory worked.

Square Nozzle

My Feedback: (1)

I didn't say it was impossible. As Trundle said, we've come a long way in 100 years. What I did say is, it will not happen in our lifetime and I (if I'm here) will sorely miss the sound of a turbines whine and the exhaust odor. If the Star Wars imagineers have it right, there will be changes. Be it electric or nuclear or a combination of, it will likely come. Can't you just see the throngs of people rushing to the airport to get into a plane with a nuclear reactor on board! That will be a tough sell.

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

I think what Pat was alluding to was a nuclear powered cruise missile that Air & Space Smithsonian magazine profiled in an article many years ago. It was an awesome Cold War relic! The damn thing was accelerated on launch by a solid rocket motor that would get it going. It was as simple as can be: a nuclear pile that heated up to VERY high temps (don't recall how high). It was kind of like a ram-jet: it had an open front end. air was forced in as it flew, there was a venturi and behind that the nuclear pile. The air was super-heated by the pile and then of course expanded in the aft expansion nozzle driving the thing forward. It was to cruise (I think supersonic) over the Soviel Union and toss out nuclear bombs at pre-determined locations. The worst part about it was that after all of its warheads were "delivered", they actually considered programming it to continue to criss-cross the country spewing radioactivity to kill as much as possible. WOW!!!! It really is worth a read.

patf

My Feedback: (4)

didnt mean to hijack. woketman is correct. project pluto. the article was "the flying crowbar"

SJN

The HTRE-3 nuclear aircraft engine
(Heat Transfer Reactor Experiment No. 3 )

and GE X211 Nuclear turbo jet.

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

Oooohhh, this is so damn cool!!!

GSR

My Feedback: (145)

Here is the article from Air and Space- i remember reading it 20 years ago. Scott ( OK 17)
http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html

Woketman

My Feedback: (6)

EXCELLENT, that's it! Thanks.

drdoom

My Feedback: (9)

Wait till OSHA, Gets ahold of (Lightning ONBOARD an AIRCRAFT). with live peeps.
FAA would take a DiM view ,along with everyone else.
They asolutely forbid my machanic from changing my lnsturment lighting over to
electroluminescent or LED. SOOOO I still can't see the Panel.

Trundle

Unfortunately being 15 I wont be surprised if we literally run out of fossil fuel in my lifetime. Its almost guaranteed that prices will soar and maybe even the running of all engines and jets would be reserved to the extremely wealthy who still love the sound, smell etc... I think that this is something that we have to face up to and start developing technologies before inevitably our fossil fuels do run out.

perttime

Storing the energy of a lightning would be challenging.
... What sort of an electric launch rail would it take to get an engineless plane ballistic for an intercontinental flight ... the landing would have to be perfect every time ...

Trundle

One that would certainly kill all on board with the acceleration! Never mind the number of failed landings!

Terry Holston

My Feedback: (1)

You need Star Trek Inertia Dampeners and Warp Drive, Yeah, That'll do the trick....................

SJN

A huge network of highspeed Maglev trains will probably overtake the airlines when fuel prices go too high..


THese are only first generation trains........lets see how fast they will reach in the near future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQyj-...elated&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPSd9GULjFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuSrL...elated&search=

erbroens

yes, but maglevs couldn´t take us too far away..

what we really need is something similar to the old galleons of the 15th century.. and then start crowding new worlds.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/re.../ipspaper.html


Enrique