We have always loved flight, even if we get a little nervous. From the Montgolfier Brothers onwards the idea of invading another environment without a single genetic change, showed humanity at its most awesomely intelligent. We still believe that its ability to whisk millions around the globe will slowly erode the chains of xenophobia.
The downside is of course glaring: every time your jet whisks you off to Benidorm or Bahrain, you make the seas below a little deeper, the air around a little more poisonous….until all our dreams dissolve in a catastrophic ecological crash. We need to get the petrol out of planes. But what else has the sheer power, apart from cracking carbon molecules, to lift all that steel and glass and humanity safely off the runway, and deliver it to any viable economic distance? “Ay, there’s the rub”, as Hamlet once said before he went into the cigar business.
The answer has always seemed to lie in electrically powered planes. But there have always been real doubts about their power and range. But it seems that the people at Rolls Royce just won’t be beaten. This week they unveiled an electric plane which can fly for 30 minutes; that reached 387.4 mph (623.45km) and could climb to 3000m in in 202 seconds. Look at the report by Shivali Best of the Mail [1]if you don’t believe us; it’s packed with data, pictures and videos.
Seen it? Good-what does it remind you of? Like nothing so much as one of those early 1930s fighter prototypes. Which in their day broke all kinds of new rules on power plants, streamlining, materials and controls. This thing won’t get you to Majorca. But it means that something based on it will-quite soon. The power of human intelligence is the best way to soothe our current angst. But try telling that to the vast number s who still believe in conspiracies and populist politicians.
[2] https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/accel.aspx
#rols royce #greenaviation #electric flight #global warming #climate change #transport
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