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Is this that answer? What would you say? A failure, and a disappointment if the product isn't viable in a few years?
Not at all. I would say that if anyone thought that solar cells were a viable replacement for a high-bypass turbofan in the forseeable future that they need to go back to school for a few years. Do a quick napkin calculation-what is the combined power output of the engines used to propel a modern commercial airliner? Convert it to watts to keep it easy. Now, how many watts per unit area are collected by state of the art PV technology? Divide this number into the above total power number and you'll have an answer of how much surface area you would have to have covered in PV cells to power an airliner.
Heck, ifn I wanted to ignore engineering and physics, I'd say why waste time on this and just wish for a transporter and warp drive.
Not at all. I would say that if anyone thought that solar cells were a viable replacement for a high-bypass turbofan in the forseeable future that they need to go back to school for a few years.
And who but you is tying it to foreseeable future? The fact is that this is a step forward in the right direction, whether you like it or not.
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Heck, ifn I wanted to ignore engineering and physics, I'd say why waste time on this and just wish for a transporter and warp drive.
You're pretty close to it with your assumptions, discussing how things stand now or in the foreseeable future. You're running you math, while engineers, physicists and scientists are at work for the next step forward.
And who but you is tying it to foreseeable future? The fact is that this is a step forward in the right direction, whether you like it or not.
You're pretty close to it with your assumptions, discussing how things stand now or in the foreseeable future. You're running you math, while engineers, physicists and scientists are at work for the next step forward.
Hate to have to tell you this, but math is part of engineering. And any real engineer does the basic math to evaluate the feasibility of a concept to see if it's worth persuing. As I said, this project was an interesting engineering accomplishment, and may even have some limited practical applications. I just don't see it being viable for commercial air transport, the energy density just isn't there.
Now feel free to go back to your Popular Mechanics whenever you like
Hate to have to tell you this, but math is part of engineering. And any real engineer does the basic math to evaluate the feasibility of a concept to see if it's worth persuing. As I said, this project was an interesting engineering accomplishment, and may even have some limited practical applications. I just don't see it being viable for commercial air transport, the energy density just isn't there.
Now feel free to go back to your Popular Mechanics whenever you like
Engineering is a lot more than just math. I should know, I'm an engineer by qualification (bachelors) and have a graduate degree with a major in Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of it required math, and more.
You may not see the viability and simply may not be able to appreciate the advancement as any engineer, scientist or physicist may be. But that won't stop people like me cheering at every step forward, and creating those possibilities into the future. And when you come here, trying to downplay it, you will get to hear it.
Concessions may be necessary to help technology evolve. Consider that in nature, if you want a new species to thrive, you must protect it against the predators. If you want small businesses to grow, you must establish policies that not only creates an environment to flourish and be secure from large corporations from gobbling them up.
BS, we don't move forward by giving up. What idiot thought of that idea? That is a used car salesman pitch. If the technology can't excel past the previous, it isn't as good as the current. You might think it isn't, but then you are thinking of factors which are based on irrelevant politics and not based on anything quantifiable of substance.
"Oh, if we can just eat our own excrement and then bath in our urine, just think of all the savings we will have by not using up the resources"
It is stupid talk, and you can spin it all you like, but that is the fact of the matter.
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Originally Posted by EinsteinsGhost
You're speaking of Boeing as if it would be one of those predators that I alluded to above. But, I'm sure, any reasonable person can realize how inventions, and science in general, progresses... a step at a time.
they do IF they progress. If they are require people to give up a bunch in order to obtain, then it is just a hippy sales pitch that went out of business and is looking for government mandate to get their way. We don't reward stupid, we beat it with a bat and kick it into the sewer.
Ultimately I don't see Boeing's commercial aircraft business being in any jeopardy from this technology. I can see practical applications where long duration and short/moderate range is crucial-as someone mentioned, military UAVs or possibly traffic monitoring may make sense.
You will if the idiots mandate it through government control. Look no further to the stupid who can't excel on their own riding the back of power to have their stupidity dictated.
My point was that if it is successful, then it will grow and flourish in the free market. If it doesn't it is because it is a failed concept and doesn't deserve to see the light of day. That doesn't stop the stupid from pushing ideas from the heart! They can't get it through their thick heads that it isn't successful because it is a failure, they think that if they just "believe" enough, it will turn stupid into smart! It is a Dr. Seuss story gone wrong.
Why does it matter? Are you one of those who can't appreciate scientific advancements and prefers to downplay them instead just because what some others might make of it? Or, are you one of those with no engineering or scientific knowledge (or, for that matter with even basic common sense) who will look at this article and see it as a viable product in the near future (much less current) for air transport? Or, perhaps you've answered that question already!
Advancement means progression forward. You don't progress forward if you have to give up to get it it. See the problem? It is wonderful that they are pushing the limits of a certain technology. I wish them all the best, and hope they succeed in obtaining their goals, but only someone too stupid to breathe would think that we need to give up to get. That is not an advancement, it is a compromise and depending on much of a compromise, it could be the opposite of advancement.
Though it may make us feel warm inside, and for some that is all that matters. Those some being the idiots.
BS, we don't move forward by giving up. What idiot thought of that idea?
You? Because I am opposed to giving up. I'm all for a step at a time forward, no matter how small.
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If the technology can't excel past the previous, it isn't as good as the current. You might think it isn't, but then you are thinking of factors which are based on irrelevant politics and not based on anything quantifiable of substance.
I disagree. It would be giving up. You know, idiots think along those lines, as you said earlier.
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they do IF they progress. If they are require people to give up a bunch in order to obtain, then it is just a hippy sales pitch that went out of business and is looking for government mandate to get their way. We don't reward stupid, we beat it with a bat and kick it into the sewer.
Well, you should save your hippies versus walmart hippies debate for another thread. Are you for moving forward? Or, are you for giving up?
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Originally Posted by Nomander
Advancement means progression forward. You don't progress forward if you have to give up to get it it. See the problem?
. . . I just don't see it being viable for commercial air transport, the energy density just isn't there.
And people in 1900 didn't think airplanes (or "air ships" as they were then known) would be viable for commercial transport, even as far out into the future as the year 2000.
"There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic. They will be maintained as deadly war-vessels by all military nations. Some will transport men and goods. Others will be used by scientists making observations at great heights above the earth."
There are some pretty funny ones in there, though! By now we're all supposed to be speaking Russian as our second language, and C, X & Q should have ceased to exist. Store-bought items should be arriving in our homes via pneumatic tubes - whee! Peas are supposed to be the size of beets. Beets, I tell you! Beets!
Engineering is a lot more than just math. I should know, I'm an engineer by qualification (bachelors) and have a graduate degree with a major in Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of it required math, and more.
You may not see the viability and simply may not be able to appreciate the advancement as any engineer, scientist or physicist may be. But that won't stop people like me cheering at every step forward, and creating those possibilities into the future. And when you come here, trying to downplay it, you will get to hear it.
I also am a BSME. And like most engineers I find this to be interesting technology. But let me ask you, if someone comes to you with an idea for a perpetual motion machine are you going to back it just because it sounds like cool technology? Or are you going to use your engineering background to analize the concept and evaluate if it's feasable?
Science fiction is not science, wishing is not engineering. I stand by my earlier statement, a solar powered commercial airliner, with performance comparable to current offerings, is in the same catagory. The energy density just isn't there. Got any data to show differently? I'd like to be proven wrong.
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