I’m sick of plane bashing, people complaining about the damage they do the environment. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for saving the earth just take a look at pervious posts (I don’t own a car!) . I just think that planes only produce 2% of the worlds carbon emissions. Cars, power stations and factories etc must produce far more carbon emission?
We can have alternative technologies to power cars, produce electrical power and make factories more environmentally friendly. What we don’t have is alternative methods to power planes. The only energy dense substances (Packed full of energy and lightweight) which is suitable to power planes is Kerosene. Maybe nuclear power, but I can’t see people to happy with flying nuclear reactors in the sky! Boeing is working on fuel cell’s technology, but this isn’t going to propel us at jetliner speeds anytime soon.
So until we have the technology we should be realistic and say planes unfortunately contribute carbon, but we will make sure we more than cover this carbon footprint by reducing them in other areas.
Okay short term flights, yes I’m guilt of this for work related trips from Edinburgh to London, but if the government did a little more to improve the railways I would be more than happy to ditch the fuss of Airports.
Blended Wing Body
Anyway this post started off to mention what I think the planes of the future might look like. This type of design has been around since the second world war. Companies like Boeing think aircraft shaped like this can dramatically reduce it’s carbon emissions, carry more people/cargo and generally quieter.
Boeing’s experimental X-48B plane prepared for testing. The unmanned, blended-wing aircraft recently flew for the first time, reaching an altitude of 7,500ft (2,300m). The innovative design is quieter and more fuel efficient than conventional aircraft.
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/improvingflight/x48b.html
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