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Flying is here to stay , specially for long distance travel & we do not have much choices if we are traveling across oceans, however we need to look flying in another way.
Airplanes require lots of power to stay flying due to the fact that these machines are heavier- than- air in contrast to the airships which are lighter -than -air machines.
Airships can stay aloft because of their inherent buoyancy with no help required from a power plant.
In order to fly, the airplanes need forward motion & this forward motion can only be achieved by great amounts of high grade fuel burning in a jet turbine or a piston engine which is an internal combustion power plant .
Automotive gasoline & Diesel engines are also Internal Combustion type. In this type of power plant natural by-products of combustion i.e. Carbon dioxide & water vapour, cannot be achieved.
This engine is inherently polluting & fragile due to the nature of complex engineering. And how about the noise that is a fact with all internal combustion engines-used to be called internal explosion engines initially!!
Internal Combustion Engines have been called, "Public Health Enemy Number One" , & it has also been said,
" A Modern Gasoline engine is truly a marvel of complication in adapting for a purpose for which it is not really suited"!
Of the 100 billion tons of CO2 that humans have pumped into the air since 1750 , a full one quarter was belched out between 2000 & 2010. On May 10 2013 the CO2 in the atmosphere briefly peaked above 400 PPM , its highest level in 800,000 years. Average temperature rose 1.5 F between 1910 & 2010."
And ten hottest years on record have all been since 1998.
From: WAR! What It is GOOD For?
By: Ian Morris , page 368
And according to NASA ,2014 was recorded to be the hottest year!
Going back to flying, just a little interruption in forward motion leads to the loss of lift - causing the aircraft to stall , in other words the airplane is not flying anymore! And what goes up will come down.
Remember miracle over Hudson in 2008 due to bird strike of US air.
The disruption of air service in April 2010 due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland .
This service was stopped just because of the fear of jamming the jet engines. A British Airways Boeing 747 barely recovered from stalling after its all four engines quit when it flew through volcanic ash near Indonesia although there was no visible sign of ash cloud.
How about the air traffic freeze in Europe due to freezing weather in winter of 2010-2011. Additional care is required in winter- deice the flying surfaces because ice buildup will interfere with the generation of lift.
In 2009 flying from Brazil an Air France A 330 was lost just because the crew misread the information about airspeed due to frozen speed sensing tubes . They could have recovered from the stall had they been flying by the "seat of their pants" . Too much reliance on autopilot! High tech does not necessarily mean good for humans in all applications.
Remember the Concorde crash at Paris that led to the grounding of the whole fleet-caused by a small metal strip that fell from an earlier departing airliner on the runway.
Recent additions are Malaysia MH17,MH370 & AirAsia 8501.
Some pilot unions, including those at Air France after an A330 jet crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, have argued in the past that Airbus systems are so complex that pilots can be overwhelmed when things go wrong. The jetmaker denies this. "Exclusive Air Asia Probe Reuter January 27, 2015".
Sudden decompression can cause an aircraft to break apart or if it does not lead to that extreme consequence at least the crew is forced to bring the aircraft to a safer flying height for the comfort of passengers due to low oxygen at higher altitudes
.
By nature the airplanes are so unforgiving & fragile that a little mistake can be deadly. They are expensive to own, operate & costly to replace.
SOLUTION? HYBRID AIRSHIPS
I call them AIR CRUISERS.
Combine an existing fuselage with a modern airship filled with helium. Using tandem airships will decrease cost per mile. Using an available fuselage without the engines, wings landing gear & tail unit are very cost effective way to assemble the proposed air cruiser.
Propelled by large duct fans driven by slow turning steam engines-external combustion engines as opposed to the internal combustion engines now in current use. These air-cruisers will be environmentally friendly & fuel efficient due to the fact of using low grade fuel with complete combustion & a closed cycle. An external combustion engine is a fuel independent machine i.e. any low grade fuel can be used!
Auxiliary power can be generated by solar panels. The technology is here & reusing existing fuselages will cut initial costs. These air cruisers may be flying at a lower altitude than the current altitude being used by commercial airliners , thus need of pressurization will be less punishing to the older fuselages, giving a longer life to the craft. Different altitude operation will ensure no confrontation between existing air traffic & the air cruiser service.
Using this hybrid very long range can be achieved & there will be no need for runways-saving expensive real-estate costs required for airports. Paving for runways also contribute to global warming , by covering the soil.
Net time gain will be in the same ball park as in the case of current travel times.
Example.
Vancouver-Karachi, London-Sydney. Trans-continental trip through North America.
Using polar route as we do now & travelling at a casual speed of 400-500kph it will take
about the same time as in the case of travelling to an intermediate hub & waiting & wasting time to make up a connection.
The secret - SLOW DOWN PEOPLE !!
Concord & Concordisky(Tu144) were economic failure because of our obsession with SPEED.
-Boeing could have built an SST (Super Sonic Transport) in early seventies but did not go ahead because they knew it would be an economic failure.
Our air cruiser will fly for about 8 million & it will be safe from violent ends as may be faced by any airliner at any time . Earlier air ships had the problem with hydrogen & that we have taken care of by using helium & combing with 21 st century technology this vehicle has a promising future. What do you think?
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