| Boeing's Concept Hydrogen Plane |
| Written by Philip Proefrock | ||
| Monday, 28 August 2006 | ||
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Emissions-free flight could be a possibility in the future, as Boeing is working to develop a light plane that is powered by fuel cells and an electric motor instead of fossil fuels in 12 month's time. The only emissions from such a plane would be water vapor. 
At this point, the plane would be a small craft, and might have a top speed of only 70 miles per hour. It's not going to be a replacement for commercial passenger craft any time soon. But it's certainly another avenue for research and development toward what might some day be cleaner, greener air travel.
Comments
(11)
Why?
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
Weight
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
Planes have to be light and, per unit of power, batteries are very heavy. Weight isn't as big of a deal in cars. There have been some electric gliders, but, so far, there's no way to store the amount of power needed to drive an airplane in a battery.
...
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
There is some other work being done on electric planes. The fuel cell method is a lighter means of providing electric power than a mass of batteries. However, the cell doesn't provide enough power for takeoff, so the plane does have some batteries to assist in takeoff. Those are then recharged once the plane is in flight.
Emissions.
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
Of course you still need power to charge the fuel cell and if that power doesn't come from a green source (solar, wind, etc), you haven't really got an emission free plane.
How about a large elastic band, running down the center of the plane. 
Heheheh
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
Well...the plane itself would still technically be emissions free but, yes, we still run into all the same problems as always when we discuss a large scale hydrogen economy. We've got to create the hydrogen somehow.
Re: Weight
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
Let's consider two similarly powered vehicles... Electric Writespeed X1 car above (236bhp/1500lbs) and the Cessna Turbo Skylane (235bhp/2075lbs empty 584lbs gas)... Theoretically, if they just fix wings worth 1159lbs (which is also equal to ~56% of the Cessna's body weight) to the X1, the car will still weigh the same as the Cessna and have 1hp to spare. And I also imagine the car's motor is more economical than Cessna's 540 cubic inch turbocharged engine (Textron Lycoming TI0-540-AK1A).
Re: Weight (references)
written by a guest , August 29, 2006
* Writespeed X1: http://www.wrightspeed.com
* Cessna Turbo Skylane: http://turboskylane.cessna.com/spec_gen.chtml * "The weight of gasoline typically varies between 5.9 to 6.5 pounds per gallon.": http://www.cdc.gov/NIOSH/face/...ne005.html * Textron Lycoming engine model naming convention: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycoming_O-320 GTW (sorry for the second post)
Please, an experoimental version!
written by Luke , September 06, 2006
This is just what I have been waiting for. I have been wanting to build a plane for some time, but have put it on hold due to issues with fuel. Please, let there be experimental hydrogen power plants soon!!
Hydrogen made from water
written by SparkySpider , November 03, 2006
Just as hydrogen fuel cells bond hydrogen with oxygen and make the electrons do work in the process, so one can fairly easily (through electrolysis) make hydrogen from electricity and water.
As hydrogen production is non-critical, it can be made at the airfield using wind or solar power. It's not even that expensive to set up. The only problem is a small machine takes about 2 days make enough hydrogen to drive a small hydrogen car about 100km. Doing the process using superheated water apparently greatly speeds up the process. Scientists are thinking of using the waste heat of 4th generation nuclear powerstations to assist in the production of hydrogen for the new hydrogen economy. I'm keen to see what they come up with next.
pie
written by fdsfsdf , February 12, 2007  sdffsdf
!!!!!!!!!!
written by Easyjet , February 12, 2007
PLANES ARE CRAP Y CANT WE USE OUR BIKES TO FLY!!!!
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GTW