Airbus and Rolls-Royce hit eject on hybrid-electric airliner testbed

[freebeard]

I can't find a good aircraft thread to drop this in. www.theregister.co.uk: Airbus and Rolls-Royce hit eject on hybrid-electric airliner testbed after E-Fan X project fails to get off the ground

Rolls-Royce chief techie Paul Stein said in a statement last week: "Although our programme with Airbus concludes, we are planning that our power generation system ground testing will complete, allowing us to demonstrate the technology and capture all the lessons."

The British engine maker's CTO enthused over the fruits of the project to date, saying: "Amongst the many great achievements from E-Fan X has been the generator – about the same size as a beer keg – but producing a staggering 2.5MW. That's enough power to supply 2,500 homes and fully represents the pioneering spirit on this project."

Strangely, in March The Engineer magazine reckoned that the Cranfield, Bedfordshire-based BAe-146 was ready for initial, non-electric, test flights this year. Although the BAe-146 can fly on three of its four conventional jet engines, Cranfield's runway isn't long enough to do that safely.

Best laid plans, eh?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

After watching some videos of small aircraft fitted with Corolla engines, it seems like trying a similar approach with a Prius engine wouldn't be impossible. But anyway, I'd only hold my breath for hybrid aircraft to become mainstream as long as they're fitted with a propeller (either piston-engined or turboprop), or the fan is so massive that it requires a reduction gearbox in order to prevent the tips of the blades to break the barrier of sound.

[freebeard]

This is only hybrid for test purposes, working toward an all-electric solution.

They flew into an airport they can't fly out of again without the un-tested 4th engine.

[freebeard]

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr — Didn't you talk about putting windpower in your grandmother's house? I can't find the thread.

Anyway I posted something about tuned mass dampers and now it looks like Julian Edgar predicted the future, unless it was more than a week ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPT9dPE4oRs

[Piotrsko]

They can fly it out when the temp drops some. There's a problem with the balanced field calculation and they can't dump fuel load.

[freebeard]

Thanks. Good that we're not headed into Summer?

I should have focused on the 'beer-keg' sized generator. It came across as negative.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I won't hold my breath for some all-electric aircraft. Pressurizing the cabin with an electric compressor might spend too much more energy than it would be worth bleeding from a compressor of an engine.

Originally Posted by freebeard

cRiPpLe_rOoStEr — Didn't you talk about putting windpower in your grandmother's house? I can't find the thread.

I don't remember the thread, but yes, I was talking about that. It was in 2007 that I lurked about it for the first time, never actually tried it. She died in 2015, and I haven't been in her former house more than 3 times since then.

[freebeard]

Let's do the time-warp again?

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

I won't hold my breath for some all-electric aircraft. Pressurizing the cabin with an electric compressor might spend too much more energy than it would be worth bleeding from a compressor of an engine.

your thinking inside the box

thinks outside the box
answer:

Air can be stored quite effectively in bottles when the ICE is running

[JSH]

I made housings for the shuttle high-pressure fuel turbopumps at my first job out of school. 71,140 hp shaft horsepower from a pump a little bigger than a Chevy big block. Crazy stuff.

I got to work on the F-22, F-35 and some cool DARPA stuff too: