FEB 05

Well... it's far from being a prototype, but with everyone racking their brains about how aviation can continue in a world where we are all tightening our carbon belts, there is a consensus that the days of air-travel powered by Jet A1 are numbered. Hope for intercontinental eco-savvy globe trotters could come from a small firm in Oxfordshire, UK, who claim to have designed a hypersonic plane that can do the jaunt from the UK to Australia in under five hours.

With a top speed of 4000, it's fast, and there are claims that it could be prototyped within 25 years - by which time aviation fuel and environmental taxes will surely have made air travel blindingly expensive. Hypersonic flight has been achieved before, but whether it could be sustained on a scale to make it commercially viable is yet to be seen.

However, at EcoGeek, we like the fact that it runs on "liquid hydrogen." Whilst the bulk of hydrogen is currently produced from those nasty fossil fuels at the moment, hydrogen does offer a solution as an energy carrier in a post-carbon world, and if Reaction Engines' design does "take off," combined with clean sources of hydrogen, it could go a long way toward making air travel sustainble.

Via BBC World

Comments (7)

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Finally, a use for hydrogen that makes s
written by tom konrad, February 06, 2008

Converting electricity to hydrogen is ineffiecient way to propel a car, but it makes a lot more sense with a plane, which would be hard to charge while aloft.

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Agree with the above poster
written by Brave New Leaf, February 07, 2008

I don't see a huge future for the hydrogen powered car: my guess is they'll all be electric and hopefully running from a renewable grid. But the hydrogen powered airplane is a great idea.

I'm glad to see that they are testing airplanes with biofuels, but it still doesn't solve the greenhouse emissions problem. Emissions released by airbourne aircraft are up to 3x more troublesome than ground-released emissions because they don't have the opportunity to be absorbed by something, say a tree, on the way up.

Here's hoping this innovation gets fast-tracked.

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Hotel! eerrr! helto! eerrr! Hotol, oder
written by Djarada, February 17, 2008

This is Hotol in new clothes oder,or the follow up Skylon :)

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And fill up the higher atmosphere with c
written by Frisbee, February 18, 2008

Burning hydrogen at such hights produces immense amounts of water vapour. As far as I've understood this will multiply greenhouse effect of airplanes. So even when hydrogen is to be produced in a carbonneutral way, unwantedly such a plane would add enormously to greenhouse effects instead of deminishing it.....

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...
written by ethan, February 19, 2008

great concept except, well, where are all of the antigravity-ish sort of hyper-turbo booster thing-ummies?

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...
written by Ook, February 23, 2008

While water vapour is indeed the worst greenhouse gas, I am under the impression that it is naturally already at or near the maximum concentration in the atmosphere - adding more of it isn't much of a problem because it condenses. Look into it!

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CEO
written by campbell, March 10, 2008

The future of flight lies in the other direction; a REDUCTION

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