Tag: airplane

Hyperefficient Airplane

Celera 500L Aircraft 6x more fuel-efficient

We believe the Celera 500L is the biggest thing to happen to both the aviation and travel industries in 50 years. The Celera 500L has a maximum cruising speed of at least 700km per hour and a range of over 7000km. It also has impressive fuel economy, achieving 7 km / liter and 11 km / liter. A traditional business jet with similar capabilities to the Celera 500L, including its 6-passenger capacity, typically achieve 0.5 km / liter, making Otto’s design dramatically more economical, as well as more environmentally friendly. The Celera 500L will have an unbelievably low per-hour flight cost of just $328.

Airplane Bunks

The plan is to have these pods in the Economy cabin, and “an economy-class customer on long-haul flights would be able to book the Economy Skynest in addition to their Economy seat. They would get some quality rest and arrive at their destination ready to go. This is a game changer on so many levels.”

bunk beds for the masses. it could be worse?

Airlines gone by 2060

Starting around 2030, SpaceX reusable Starship rockets will start providing a replacement for long international flights. The speed will be increased 20x. It will be anywhere in the world in 1 hour. SpaceX will be able to have 1000 people in reclined seating arrangements. The cost will be about $500-1000 per seat per flight. The key enabling factor is increasing the safety of rockets.

SpaceX success in this area would cripple the main financial strength of existing airlines. Business travel and first-class travel and international flights will be replaced with reusable rockets.

A bit more detail:

The reality of SpaceX mass production rockets is unfolding before our eyes. SpaceX Starships will cost over 10x less than current cargo planes, have over 2x the range and will be 30x faster. These massive advantages will give SpaceX dominance of the cargo business.

Not only that, they may also become price competitive by weight. Air freight is 1-5$ per KG, Starship could get to 10$ / KG to LEO, presumably less for ballistic flights. With airlines struggling in general, this could be a huge opening, and remodel the world economy for true just in time delivery.

America’s aerospace industry is regenerating:

If there ever was an example of Schumpeter’s creative destruction, this is it. Traditional aerospace companies have a hoard of capital and talent, providing poor returns to customers. Startups are siphoning the best talent and raising money. Market potential and technology are converging to create an ecosystem that looks more like the aerospace industry pre-1970, including the exploding prototypes, crazy ideas, and swarms of new companies. That aerospace industry took us from the first flight to the moon in ~65 years. The latest batch yearns to take us further.

2022-04-15: If airlines survive, here’s a look at the state of hypersonic flight.

High-speed flight is no longer a game of national prestige, subject to the whims of politics. It’s become the domain of private industry, where the technology is mature enough that entrepreneurs can focus on designs that reduce business risk. In the next decade we anticipate commercial high-speed flight will return to the market, regulations around overland sonic boom will be changed thanks to NASA’s X-59 program, and hypersonic technologies will transition from military to civilian flight. The future is faster!

Kitty Hawk Plane

Kitty Hawk showed off its latest concept—an 8-motor prototype that uses an unconventional forward-swept wing, and is purportedly 100x quieter than a conventional helicopter. The company calls it Heaviside, after noted physicist and electrical engineer Oliver Heaviside, who advanced a variety of theories and innovations in mathematics, electronics, and communications in the early 20th century.

B2 Bomber pilots

During the refueling and afterward, the B-2 pilots spoke with European air traffic control. The skies cleared. 400km north of the Libyan coastline, the pilots turned south, switched off their transponders, and disappeared from air-traffic-control radar. They had now been flying for 15 hours. Still offshore, they went into a holding pattern that had been planned as a cushion to allow them to get the timing just right. It was nearly midnight Zulu Time—2 in the morning local time. They heard the mission controller order the drones to clear out to the south, and authorize them to return immediately after the strike to kill anyone who survived. The drones were MQ-9 Reapers armed with laser-guided supersonic Hellfire missiles. Their pilots were sitting in front of control panels back in the United States. Scatter was surprised by the blanket authorization to fire. He had never heard that one before.

Supersonic Jets

Boom Supersonic believes there is a potential global market for 2000 supersonic jets. Boom Supersonic plans to make 1-way supersonic air travel from London to New York cost about $2600. They have developed prototypes of a 55-seater jet that will have a cruising speed of 2335 km/h, faster than the Concorde. They hope to begin passenger flights by 2025. Traveling at 50% of the time will really require a separate system for aircraft boarding and clearing of customs. The pre-clearance systems for getting quickly through security checks will be more common and even separate airports, terminals and gates for supersonic and other high-end travel.

Electric planes

The 2-seat Sun Flyer will be the first FAA-certified all-electric trainer aircraft. The new 4-seat will closely follow. Features of the Sun Flyer 4 include a 116 cm cabin width, 12 m wing span, ballistic parachute recovery system and a gross weight of 1200 kg with 540 kg of payload for pilot and passengers. “Like Sun Flyer 2, Sun Flyer 4 will run completely on batteries. As a result, the 4-seat airplane will have operating costs 5x lower than costs associated with similar combustion-engine aircraft. With 4 hours of flying time, the versatile Sun Flyer 4 will appeal to both flight schools and pilot-owners.”