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Where does this liquid helium come from, and more importantly where does it go after it's been heated? Im guessing they release it into atmosphere, so is there
by paulftw 12y ago
Where does this liquid helium come from, and more importantly where does it go after it's been heated? Im guessing they release it into atmosphere, so is there enough helium to mine for this plane to go mainstream?
- encoderer 12y agoWait. Wouldn't this be a closed system? I can't imagine they're outgassing helium?
- NickNameNick 12y agoThey aren't. The helium is cooled by the hydrogen going to the engine. You can't run the pre-cooler on the hydrogen directly, because the hydrogen infiltrates the welds (and everything else) causing hydrogen embrittlement, which will quickly tear the heat exchanger apart. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_embrittlement
- sparkzilla 12y agoIt says in the Wikipedia article that: "The key design feature for the Scimitar engines is the precooler, which is a heat exchanger that transfers the heat from the incoming air into the hydrogen fuel."
- sargun 12y agoHydrogen? How are they storing that efficiently?