flyBry

What do you think the future of flying will be? Lets face it, there will eventually come a time when the oil fields have been pumped dry, (maybe not in our life time but..) Everything will be running on some alternate fuel source. How will the airplanes/jets be powered? Solar cells, electric, hydrogen, nuclear powered like submarines (doesn't sound too safe)? What do you guys think about this? Lets hear some opinions

Boomer

We'll take some pages out of Hit Ler's 1944 playbook and make avgas out of coal and Gypsy tears. It will just be really expensive.

mmaviator

i think there will be no more toilets in airports and only on aircraft and this is why. this process will power the engines(along with gypsy tears).

Urine Battery Turns Pee Into Power

AZFlyer

and before flying, its highly preferred that you don't urinate during the 24 hours leading up to the flight. safety first.

Planespotta

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

jungle

Already being worked up:

Nation & World | Air Force leads push to liquefied coal fuel | Seattle Times Newspaper


Probably not on the front burner with oil under $50 a barrel now.

Traineee

Lol in the article "But advocates of liquefied coal face a counterattack from environmentalists in the debate over global warming and must prove that they can produce an ecologically friendly product with a low carbon footprint." haha Global warming what a joke its called PDO!

MD10PLT

The AF tried nuclear in the past. It's not real hard to do; just take some substance and superheat it (nuclear does this real well), then squirt it out a nozzle. People just thought a crash might be the equivalent of a dirty bomb. I'm sure when the need arises people may be more receptive.

KC10 FATboy

Who says oil fields are running dry? The last time I checked, humans keep finding new oil fields. And now we have bacteria that make oil.

Oil is here to stay for a very long time -- at least as long as I'm alive.

-Fatty

rickair7777

The air force deserves a lot of credit for making rapid progress, but their concern is strictly foriegn oil dependence and cost control. There is no environmental benefit to this project.

Several airlines and the IATA are exploring using bio-based fuel conversion, using a feedstock which will not compete with food agriculture. Also, it will burn cleaner than fossil-derived fuels. The most promising stock appears to be a desert plant called Jatropha. Algea is also a possibility.

All of these concepts will create a fuel with chemical properties very similar to kerosene. For MANY technical reasons, kerosene-like fuels are the only remotely practical option for commercial air transport. All other fuel types have serious shortcomings in specific energy, specific weight, volatility, corrosiveness, and/or cryogenic handling properties.