The best way to conserve jet fuel is to turn off the gas engines. That’s only possible with an alternative power source, like the battery packs and electric motors in the Boeing SUGAR Volt’s hybrid propulsion system. The 737-size, 3,500-nautical-mile-range plane would draw energy from both jet fuel and batteries during takeoff, but once at cruising altitude, pilots could switch to all-electric mode [see Volta Volare GT4]. At the same time Boeing engineers were rethinking propulsion, they also rethought wing design. “By making the wing thinner and the span greater, you can produce more lift with less drag,” says Marty Bradley, Boeing’s principal investigator on the project. The oversize wings would fold up so pilots could access standard boarding gates. Together, the high-lift wings, the hybrid powertrain and the efficient open-rotor engines would make the SUGAR Volt 55 percent more efficient than the average airliner. The plane would emit 60 percent less carbon dioxide and 80 percent less nitrous oxide. Additionally, the extra boost the hybrid system provides at takeoff would enable pilots to use runways as short as 4,000 feet. (For most planes, landing requires less space than takeoff.) A 737 needs a minimum of 5,000 feet for takeoff, so the SUGAR Volt could bring cross-country flights to smaller airports
but don’t hold your breath – not due till 2035
Two questions come immediately to mind, the first being why 2035 what's the delay?
The second is of a practical nature and out of my depth of knowledge; I get that runways need to be a certain length and this plane would be able to use shorter ones but with a wider wingspan will airports be affected by that and have additional costs to "widen" their runways or rather the distance between runways for safety purposes? Maybe a problem for larger airports already crowded and for smaller airports they may simply not have the room?
Innovation is great but does it count if it incurs massive additional secondary costs to simply benefit from the first?
and of course theirs always the additional thought -- is the public ready to hear their big giant jet engines being powered down, I hear complaints about electric cars not being "loud" enough, I could forsee initial panic amongst those passengers already nervous about flying to begin with...do engineers and project leads on projects such as this take the psychological impact of their design changes into account?
Granted Vinnie you may not be the one to ask but hey you always bring the coolest things to the surface :-)
Posted by: Craig | June 15, 2012 at 07:09 AM