The age of electric flight is finally upon us
1–10 of 272 posts
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#2I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene.
The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#3I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
To store enough hydrogen to be useful you probably need it in liquid form like rockets use. Hydrogen is energy dense by mass, but not by how much space it takes up compared to liquid fuels.
Otherwise you'll have a really giant bag of gaseous hydrogen which does help your bouyancy, but then you've made an airship instead of a plane and a spark accidentally turns it into the Hindenburg.
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#4I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
To store enough hydrogen to be useful you probably need it in liquid form like rockets use. Hydrogen is energy dense by mass, but not by how much space it takes up compared to liquid fuels. Otherwise you'll have a really giant bag of gaseous hydrogen which does help your bouyancy, but then you've made an airship instead of a plane and a spark accidentally turns it into the Hindenburg.
Is it so much less energy dense per liter to offset the gain in weight? In a plane energy per weight is rather important afterall
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#5I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
Tupolev made the one-off Tu-155 using liquid hydrogen and liquefied natural gas as fuel for its turbines.
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#6I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
The main source (95%) of hydrogen fuel in the US is a by-product of Natural Gas extraction (https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-na...).
What problem are we solving by moving to hydrogen?
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#7I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
There’s probably some limits to how big a reasonably swift aircraft can be due to drag.
This charge seems to indicate liquid hydrogen would require something like three times the volume as jet fuel / kerosene/ diesel.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/En...
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#8I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
Tupolev made the one-off Tu-155 using liquid hydrogen and liquefied natural gas as fuel for its turbines.
Yeah, I've found this Russian video about the Tu-155 when looking into it:
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#9I'm surprized hydrogen fueled flight isn't looked into more. Hydrogen can be produced using electrolysis and it's packs significantly more energy per weight even than kerosene. The main drawback is the low density which would require larger fuselages, but that should be offset by the significantly lower weight.
To store enough hydrogen to be useful you probably need it in liquid form like rockets use. Hydrogen is energy dense by mass, but not by how much space it takes up compared to liquid fuels. Otherwise you'll have a really giant bag of gaseous hydrogen which does help your bouyancy, but then you've made an airship instead of a plane and a spark accidentally turns it into the Hindenburg.
Liquified is the only option, I think. Compressing it into cylinders or storing it as a metal hydride is probably way too much weight.
Until recently, making hydrogen by electrolysis was not a benefit, environmentally, as a lot of the electricity would have come from fossil fuels. I think decomposition of methane is an option that would allow the carbon to be sequestered.
Re: The age of electric flight is finally upon us
#10From the article: conventional fuel for a 100 mile flight costs $400, while electric energy would cost $12.
This seems like such a tremendous difference that the market would be in an arms race to make it a reality. Especially considering electric motors have fewer moving parts and so require less maintenance. Oh and it would be so quiet.