• @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        111 year ago

        When planes and distances get larger, hydrogen starts to make more and more sense. But I guess we won’t get that far and planes will stay with biofuel and synfuel.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            31 year ago

            You mean the famous accident where the thing that was completely different from an airplane was full of hydrogen and burned down for reasons completely unrelated to that hydrogen?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              01 year ago

              And no matter which therory you champion (sabotage, lighting, or static build up), the nature of hydrogen is to blow the fuck up with urgemcy.

              It is one of the most dangerous fuels.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                31 year ago

                Yeah, I was talking about this one. You should check it again, because the theory about it being caused by hydrogen is currently discredited.

                If by “one of the most dangerous fuels” you mean just after the more volatile fossil fuel ones, that’s right. It comes just after natural gas and gasoline. It’s safer than those exactly because it tends to leak from everywhere.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          121 year ago

          That’s unlikely to change for long distance flights.

          For short flights small electric planes are becoming viable already, and they will continue towards medium flights over time.

          But theres no serious concepts for a battery that could compete for long flights.

          That’s not to say that planes are doomed to be fossil dependent forever. But the likely solution will be a renewable high density fuel, possibly hydrogen or something easier to carry.

          It’ll be less efficient than batteries on a energy in to work out basis, but once the cost of carrying the weight is considered, that will always swing way in the favour of high density fuels regardless of battery efficiency (for long distance).

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            21 year ago

            Honestly I wanna see the crazy logistics of using rocket fule, since it’s just liquid oxygen and hydrogen with a water byproduct

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            11 year ago

            Personally I doubt electric flight will ever be viable, but that’s because we should be using trains for short flights …. Says me from an urban area

            Me who grew up rural near a small city says …… what about connections from small city to an airport where I can go places?

            Me from when I worked at an investment management company and saw people with more money than they knew what to do with says …… I just need a quick hop down the Cape to my beach house (never mind that I was never one of those people)

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              11 year ago

              There will always be people like that. There will also always be places where trains are impractical.