Slashdot Mirror
Fuelless Flight with Air Submarine?
An anonymous reader writes "Using the same physics principles as submarines, a new company is planning a fuelless air ship. Recent advances in ultra light and strong materials are making this concept a practical reality." There's no question that changes in buoyancy can be used to propel a vehicle, but "fuelless" is going to be tricky.
Wouldn't something in the air be a Supermarine?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Fuelless falling.
Using the same physics principles as submarines, a new company is planning a fuelless air ship.
Isn't a fuelless air submarine usually called a "balloon"?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It's a little creepy that this website looks like this other famous site and that they both advocate leaving the earth for a long trip in a high-tech airship. Coincidence?
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
but I bet that this story should be titled "Fuelless Flight with Vapour Submarine".
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Like a lot of hot air.
Well, in any case, you might want to get an Immortality Device before you board one of these things.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
To save on the compressed air, just fill me full of mexican food, and I could provide a cheap source of propulsion. Or we can outsource that to Mumbai.
Oh, the backup engine is there alright. We just neglected to carry fuel for it onboard :D
Because you never know when you might run out of air up there!
You know... there's another name for flying without fuel. Its called skydiving!
The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers
In the even of a water landing your seat cushions may be used as a floatation device.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
The B-25 bomber valet parking didn't work too well either.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
While it's possible to convert altitude into momentum, the energy harvested by doing this won't get you back to the same height. If the wind is gusty, it could be possible to pick up a bit of energy, but nowhere near enough to power a useful transportation vehicle. A possible exception: they could have a special way of harnessing energy from vomiting passengers...
That reminds me of the old joke back in the Navy... I think it went: There are more airplanes in the oceans than submarines in the sky.
I guess that's no longer true. :-)
The aircraft, still in development, will be similar to a submarine that changes its buoyancy, a form of gravity, to float on the surface of the sea or cruise 300 ft below it.
What's scarrier, flying without an engine, or that the general public won't think twice about this sentence?
In this house, we OBEY the laws of thermodynamics!
In the year 2000... we will all fly in little vehicles that don't require fuel and can skip over rush hour traffic. Except rush hour traffic will be up in the air, and we'll have to drive in a car to avoid it... Unless, there's still people who drive below the flyers... or, or...
[head explodes]
Tumbleweed.
next!
"You worthless post!"
-Shakespeare, 2 Gentlemen of Verona, 1. 1. 147
Bridge, in Brooklynn, used and in good condition.
$500,000.00. neg.
I accept PayPal.
i have a better idea for the gravitational device. A toast with jam tied to the back of a cat....
ok that wasnt that funny. So im NOT the joker.
"The quality of life is inversely proportional to the number of keys on your keyring."
Jeez, who peed in your cheerios
I did. I peed in his Cheerios.
If Kurt Russel and Harrison Ford can land a 747 with one engine dead and one burning, then so can I. How hard can it be?
(I got my nick from "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
Funny once, Mike.
Just call it an airship and be done with it.
It's pretty clear to me that the designer of this aircraft not only took some physics in college, but also actually studied the textbook and did the problem sets. And there lies the problem. I'm convinced that (s)he did a few too many of those problems that start out: "Disregarding air resistance, find the..." or "Ignoring the effects of friction, calculate...."
Perhaps first year physics texts should come with a shrink wrap EULA that states something along the lines of: "The scenarios presented in this book do not accurately represent reality."
This isn't a typo, but just a plain old mistake by our illustrious Dr. Hunt:
"A conventional glider is towed to fairly high altitude by an airplane or is launched by a tow wench."
That must be one really big mama. The "Attack of the Forty Foot Woman" comes to mind.
Oh, maybe he meant "winch".