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Fuelless Flight with Air Submarine?

Posted by michael on from the in-this-house,-we-obey-the-laws-of-thermodynamics dept.

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.

5 of 428 comments (clear)

  1. Holy *hit BatMan by Supp0rtLinux · · Score: 2, Redundant

    I don't know about you... it looks kewl, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna fly on that thing. Personally, I trust engines, fuel, etc.

  2. Perpetual Motion by chiph · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Isn't this another perpetual-motion machine?

    After all, there's going to be wind drag against the fuselage (even if they made it out of Teflon), which will require additional energy input to keep the plane/dirigible/submarine in the air. Their wind-turbine will also have some losses in the system (presumably it charges up some batteries for later use).

    I say "scam".

    Chip H.

  3. Nanotubes? by zeux · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It seems this plane needs a very light but very strong structure, could nanotubes be helpful for that kind of design?

    --
    Iraq: war to save the U
  4. who is this joker by snarkh · · Score: 0, Redundant
    This design sounds like something made up by a 10-year old in during a boring class.

    "Gravity fuelled", yeah, sure.

  5. My biggest fear by mehtars · · Score: 0, Redundant
    My biggest fear, is that without a powered engine what is the plane todo when it encounters a thunderstorm, with high winds?

    ro