The Future of Aviation

[gunit 0]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11707135

I always wondered what would happen to skydiving once oil ran out. And from this article they hint that it might not be too far off.

Seems like it would be balloon jumps all the way?

Anyone got any thoughts?

[piisfish 135]

catapult jumps

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[wayneflorida 0]

How about jousting.

We have run out. They told us in the early 70's we only had 20 or 30 years left of oil. When I go to the pump and it says "gasoline" I know it is a lie. But I keep my mouth shut as my truck still runs.

[piisfish 135]

Quote

We have run out. They told us in the early 70's we only had 20 or 30 years left of oil. When I go to the pump and it says "gasoline" I know it is a lie. But I keep my mouth shut as my truck still runs.

now your truck is running on soylent green

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[NickDG 23]

The first parachute jumps were B.A.S.E. jumps, and the last parachute jumps will be B.A.S.E. jumps . . .

NickD

[piisfish 135]

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The first parachute jumps were B.A.S.E. jumps, and the last parachute jumps will be B.A.S.E. jumps . . .

NickD

first successful parachute jump was from a balloon. I don't recall reading about the balloon being tethered, therefore the first successful parachute jump was from an aircraft

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[countzero 7]

I think, until we have transporter beams, man will have to move things with engines. Be it people, products or food they've got to get from A to B. And human ingenuity will always find a way to keep the engines running. So if the oil does run out I think there will still be cars, ships and planes.

diamonds are a dawgs best friend

[gunit 0]

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catapult jumps

lol, or human cannon

[deltron80 0]

wake up people!!! ever heard of a space elevator??? NO DUH

[petejones45 0]

I'm sure in the future aircraft will be more selfsufficient in the fact that the energey generated from the props can be turned into electrical energy as well, inturn keeping them going

Look out for the freefly team, Smelly Peppers. Once we get a couple years more experience we will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future! BLUES!

[airtwardo 6]

~when they make a machine that makes more energy than it uses getting to altitude we won't need it anyway...'cause we can just jump on the backs of all the pigs that are flying!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[VTmotoMike08 0]

Wow, in this thread we have both an article that references when "the Earth gives up its final barrel of oil" and then a poster who believes the solution to that problem will be a perpetual motion machine.

First- the final barrel of oil comment displays a total lack of even elementary knowledge regarding oil supply/ demand/ and pricing. Oil will become so expensive that its not worth it to extract the remainder long before that last barrel is sucked from the ground. The last barrel will never be extracted.

Second- really, did someone just suggest a perpetual motion machine based on reusing the energy from the props? Ugh, forget it, not worth my time.

Topics to google include Hubbert Curve, Peak Oil and anything regarding the first and second laws of thermodynamics

[petejones45 0]

think of my comment as more of a hybrid car, perpetual motion is impossible to achieve

Look out for the freefly team, Smelly Peppers. Once we get a couple years more experience we will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future! BLUES!

[VTmotoMike08 0]

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...the energey generated from the props can be turned into electrical energy as well, inturn keeping them going

Your words, not mine. You do realize the props are doing work on the air, and not generating energy themselves, right?

Want to stick a turbine behind the props? Might work... if you can find a turbine that weighs literally nothing and adds no drag.

[petejones45 0]

they generate lift....

Look out for the freefly team, Smelly Peppers. Once we get a couple years more experience we will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future! BLUES!

[billvon 2,396]

>You do realize the props are doing work on the air, and not
>generating energy themselves, right?

During the descent they do indeed generate power. Most aircraft waste that power by going to a very inefficiency prop pitch. If the props were set to a more appropriate pitch, and there was a generator behind them, they could indeed be used to generate power.

Think of it as regen braking in a hybrid.

[airtwardo 6]

Quote

>You do realize the props are doing work on the air, and not
>generating energy themselves, right?

During the descent they do indeed generate power. Most aircraft waste that power by going to a very inefficiency prop pitch. If the props were set to a more appropriate pitch, and there was a generator behind them, they could indeed be used to generate power.

Think of it as regen braking in a hybrid.

Yeah but how would you efficiently store it?

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[billvon 2,396]

Biodiesel works just fine in diesel aircraft engines, and several turbines have used it as a fuel. Ethanol works in recip aircraft engines with minor changes to the fuel system.

Electrical power is another option. It will be a long time before electric power can replace liquid fuel for long distance flights (too much energy to store) but DZ's are pretty unique in that the aircraft only flies for 20-30 minutes at a time, and is then returned to a place it can be recharged. Article:

http://www.skyspark.eu/web/eng/index.php

[billvon 2,396]

>Yeah but how would you efficiently store it?

You could compress air, charge batteries or spin up a flywheel.

Some of the hybrid approaches to aircraft have targeted going to smaller, more efficient engines, with the hybrid system providing the additional power for takeoff. One system used a compressor to fill a high pressure bottle, then used the bottle to provide air for a secondary motor coupled to the prop shaft. (In that system the prop could not recompress the air, but that's not a hard thing to change.)

[Bodhisattva420 0]

"The first successful parachute jump was from a balloon. I don't recall reading about the balloon being tethered, therefore the first successful parachute jump was from an aircraft."

- I'm pretty sure the first parachutist was a sheep tossed out of a tower in the 1700's.

[skyrider 0]

This aircraft is only the beginning...

http://www.gizmag.com/eads-green-cri-test-flight-success/16245/

[TampaPete 35]

Faust Vrancic - Homo Volans

Other early inventors designed parachutes, including Croatian Faust Vrancic who constructed a device based on Da Vinci's drawing. Faust Vrancic jumped from a Venice tower in 1617 wearing a rigid-framed parachute. Faust Vrancic published Machinae Novae, in which he describes in text and picture fifty-six advanced technical constructions, including Vrancic's parachute called the Homo Volans.

http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/ss/Parachute.htm

Base Jump first.

[riggerrob 558]

Similarly, flying skhools will probably be the first to use elektrik-powered airplanes in signifikant numbers.
Konsider that the vast majority of training flight slast one hour and only haul two people.
Kessna is already experimenting with an elektrik-powered 172.
That is only a proof-of-konkept, but will lead to an elektrik version of their Skykatkher, etk.

P.S. Guess whikh key died on my lap-top?
DZ have two advantages, bekause they will be able to inkorporate elektrik katapults - for initial akkeleration and use propellers to - partially - rekharge batteries during deskent.
Elektrik jump-planes will still need some form of rapid rekharge, or quik-khnage batteries to keep going all day, but they will be one of the few multi-seat airplanes that will be viable on elektrikity.

[Wings-n-Things 0]

H Y D R O G E N
The most common element in the universe. And it's emissions are clean... just H2O.

Scroll a short bit down the page and see the hydrogen powered helicopter.
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydrogen-fuel/

Card carrying member of the
Nanny State Liberation Front

[Wings-n-Things 0]

Here's a page with a bit more info and a video.
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/hydrogen-powered-personal-helicopter/

Card carrying member of the
Nanny State Liberation Front