• Question: is it possible to use another renewable resource to power a commercial aircraft such as solar power?

    Asked by anon-31748 to Matt H on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Hudson

      Matthew Hudson answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      This is a good question! Air craft are one of the hardest transport vehicles to convert to ‘renewable’ energy sources. The probably being that many of them have a low energy density, which means you don’t get much power from them even if they are really big!

      Recently someone managed to fly across america in a solar plane, but it was slow and could only hold 1 person…

      Liquid fuels, such as Kerosene (jet fuel) have a much higher energy density and can power the big jet engines easily. For aviation I think the future lies with ‘alternative’ jet fuels, such as bio fuels made from Sugar cane and also jet fuel that is made from natural gas.

      Do you have any ideas on how else we could power a plane? Maybe everyone could peddle?

      Haha!

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