Exclusive Most small commercial drones have limited flight times because of heavy batteries. But XAir's can fly for hours by coasting on wind currents.
Aircraft safety is a hot topic these days, with Federal Aviation Administration investigators looking into door seals at Boeing, aircraft slides flying off mid air and engine failures plaguing several planes in recent months. But what happens if the power in your plane actually does go out? That’s... Read more
MIT engineers have flown the first silent, fuel-free “ion plane.” The light aircraft is the first plane to fly with no propellers, turbine blades, or other moving parts.
Wind energy is not reliable enough to be used as the sole power source for an aircraft. Not to mention, adding wind turbines to an aircraft would increase the drag, leading to more problems.
The first commercial passenger flight to use 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) took off yesterday—possibly the biggest leap forward for modern aviation since the Wright brothers first flew the Wright Flyer nearly 118 years ago to the day (December 17, 1903), and almost 92 years after the first ... Read more
Are silar planes the future? Is it the right way to approach aviation? Can we fly planes without fuel? Solar planes have been around for some time but they w...
There are exceptions. Air New Zealand once turned a Boeing 777 into a giant ad for Lord of the Rings, Mango, based in Johannesburg, utilises a bright orange hue, while Siberian carrier S7 tends to colour its planes lime green. But the vast majority of passenger aircraft are painted white. Why?
I found this startup that makes drones powered by wind power.
Glider planes can also fly with the wind, without any engines.
Some planes are fitted with wind turbines to generate emergency power in case of engine failure.
These MIT researchers have done it, but using ion wind propulsion.
https://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-parts-1121
A wind-powered aircraft
(5 upvotes)Start using ion engines in cars, trains, and airplanes
(6 upvotes)Wind energy is not reliable enough to be used as the sole power source for an aircraft. Not to mention, adding wind turbines to an aircraft would increase the drag, leading to more problems.
Here’s a similar concept – a detachable passenger cabin for airliners, which could be landed with parachutes in an emergency.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/detachable-cabin-futuristic-plane/index.html
Commercial airliners can weigh more than 400 tonnes. Therefore, you would need too many parachutes to land the plane safely, which is impractical.
Some planes have a parachute system that can be deployed for a safe landing. However, the technology is currently only available for light aircrafts.
Perhaps the aviation industry can adopt other green alternatives, such as renewable fuel.
While using solar energy for air travel is a great idea, many challenges currently exist that make the technology too expensive or downright unfeasible.
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/6/11569202/aviation-emissions-solar-plane
Solar energy is becoming a huge deal that even militaries are considering deploying it in spy planes and UAVs.
Solar energy is a promising technology in air travel, and there have been considerable achievements in the past few years.
https://liquiglide.com/ might have a coating that could help this. I think it’s for all sorts of surfaces that need to be non-stick.
Glass windows that clean themselves
(5 upvotes)Spacecraft and aircraft coatings that prevent ice build-up
(1 upvotes)Phone cases that float
(3 upvotes)Waterfall road signs
(6 upvotes)Liquid medicine containers that leave no residual medicine
(4 upvotes)Non-stick ketchup bottles
(4 upvotes)Toy balls that bounce on water
(1 upvotes)Even just colored planes would be an improvement, though there are reasons they are usually white.
They are missing a trick here – there are loads of aerial advertising types from blimps to banners behind planes. why not underneath jumbos?
Waterproof anything with this stuff…