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Much as you wish it were the case electric battery power does not have enough power density for mass aircraft transit yet. They're much too heavy. We're getting
by mlindner 8y ago
Much as you wish it were the case electric battery power does not have enough power density for mass aircraft transit yet. They're much too heavy. We're getting there but we're still a good decade away. You're certainly not going to get supersonic airliners with electric aircraft. (Elon Musk keeps talking about it but even he states that the energy density isn't there yet.) People need to realize the difference between fiction and reality.
- loeg 8y agoHow much do nuclear submarine power plants weigh? :-) Looks like on the order of 600 tons; also looks like 787s carry over 100 ton just in fuel fully loaded. So it is plausible that a scaled down nuclear sub reactor should supply plenty of energy at reasonable weight budget. Obviously you'd want it to be somewhat robust and maybe eject + parachute it for catastrophic scenarios, rather than irradiating whatever the plane runs into.
- ekianjo 8y agoThe energy requirements of moving in the water and the air are completely different so its not a good comparison point. And subs use nuclear power I am pretty sure nobody wants to have planes flying with nuclear reactors over their heads.
- loeg 8y agoIt wasn't intended to be a comparison of subs and planes; subs just have the smallest production nuclear power plants that I know of.
- taneq 8y agoIt's been tried, back in the 50s and 60s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion Never went anywhere then but I'd be interested to see whether modern tech could make it feasible.
- bbatha 8y agoThe problem is shielding all of the people. When you land the plane all of that ionizing radiation bounces back at the people inside giving bathing them in fatal or near fatal levels. The shielding is just too heavy and the physics of shielding make it very unlikely we can develop anything lighter. Also should the plane have an accident you now have radioactive material spread over miles. Which is also not an easily solved problem.
- loeg 8y ago> When you land the plane all of that ionizing radiation bounces back at the people inside giving bathing them in fatal or near fatal levels Can you elaborate on what specifically about landing causes that?