Jump to content
This is a snapshot of the forum as it was on Thursday 2nd Dec 2021. Not everything will work.
It is not possible to login, edit or make any changes and is provided for prosterity for those who wish to view the old content.
C.A.M.F.C - Members & Visitors area

Easyjet going electric?


Recommended Posts

  • Club Members

Like Amazon and the delivery drones, this has nothing whatsoever to do with real world practicality,, and everything to do with gaining free advertising exposure, in this case using the lure of commercial electric flight, which of course they just have. 

Some bright young thing in marketing had a brain f*rt and the people who should have squashed it were off playing golf.

Just do the maths. Try just two parameters, thrust required and duration required for.

I can hear the engineers cringing from here.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well if an extra 330 can be powered for 1/2 hour, surely it can be done on a bigger scale? With the rate technology is developing flight times will only increase, but I must say that having an electric jet is a bit of a far fetched idea... A tractor or pusher prop would be a much more viable solution, as all we'd get with a jet is a EDF XXXL with flight times of 5 mins :) 

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Club Members

PLEASE, not a pusher, don't even mention it!  There's a pusher jet turbine prop comes in and out of B.H. It is ridiculously and offensively noisy, I really do not know how the operator (and the airport) gets away with it. It is so bad that at the field you can always hear it spool up and identify it LONG before take off.

Piaggio Avanti. Apparently the maker has spent years trying to quieten it with no success at all. The noise impact is far too much.

 

10 hours ago, Pilot Ben said:

Well if an extra 330 can be powered for 1/2 hour, surely it can be done on a bigger scale?  :) 

Just as well you used a smiley there!  On thrust alone for now, ignore duration, do the maths on how many "Elextra" motors would be required to develop the thrust of a Airbus A319 or a Boeing 737 series.  Then calculate their weight.  This of course ignores batteries/alternate power supply. A jet engine is actually mostly "hole" and actually not that heavy!!

Also an existing jet lands much lighter than it took off, having GAINED efficiency the longer it flies.  And Electric?

 

10 hours ago, Pilot Ben said:

All we'd get with a jet is a EDF XXXL with flight times of 5 mins :) 

........................that had to be bungee launched at 10g breaking every passengers neck to get off the ground.  9_9

 

I'm well aware that technology advances, spent my whole working life at the front edge of automated process control. I have told this tale but will repeat.   Stagecoach got their first "new technology" electric powered bus about 10 years back, a std sized 40(ish) seat single decker, and were so proud they wanted to bring it to us to photograph it on our Museum site with our electric drive 48 seater double decker 1914 bus.  Theirs had a small diesel generator to keep charge.

Days before the press launch, they rang to say it wasn't going to happen. They had to admit when pressured (I was speaking direct with their Engineering Director) that they had tested it but found it would not be able to climb the hill from Fontwell up to Five Ways.

I offered to bring our 1914 bus to them, but they refused the offer.  :P

The Hybrids on the 119 route now have electric available at under 11mph, then the diesel cuts in. Unless driven very conservatively, they spend a lot of time on engine power.

A friend has just brought a new design Hybrid BMW Mini. This is 4WD, engine FWD, motor RWD. either or both can run. He was ecstatic the other day as it had managed to recover most of the charge back in a 6 mile journey, carrying only him. It started with over half a charge as he has yet to add the fast charge facility at his home as the input cabling to his 1930's house is not capable.

That was running the petrol engine into the resistance of the motor load as a generator and carrying the extra weight of the batteries at a punitive effect on consumption and ejected pollution. Batteries that give it an abysmally small boot space with the rear seats up.  This is state of the art current progress.

I note with great interest that the Tesla as sold now in the USA requires a THREE PHASE supply for its charger! Few UK homes have Three Phase, and the cost of modifying the infrastructure to cater for that need would be massive and cause pollution in traffic restrictions that would never be re-couped by the "savings".

Electric commercial sized planes would require airports to have their own power generating stations or there would be huge requirements for cabling/pylons! 

SO much written and acted upon is total rubbish. One example, I also note the press statements of alleged Govt intent to crack down on diesel cars by reducing their allowed co2 emission per tax band.  Scant years ago they promoted diesel cars because they did (and still do) emit less co2 per mile than the equiv petrol engine. It is PARTICULATES that diesels are potentially poorer for, but this is not mentioned.

I could drive every day for the rest of my life and still my existing car would not emit more pollution than the making of a hybrid replacement would cause!

AND, at the same time, everyone and his dog is being allowed (nay promoted) into buying oversized overweight high drag crossovers or 4x4s that do not fit our roads and cause traffic to slow, causing much more stopping, acceleration and braking avoiding each other, and as a result a great deal MORE pollution.  Take a "family" five seat sized car of the late 1960's, lets say a Mk1 Ford Cortina, and measure all its whole life impact on the environment against a Hybrid BMW mini, which barely seats four, let alone (say) a Nissan Qashqai.

While waiting on Friday in Gatwick Orange Car Park level 1, a constant string of vehicles, many recent petrols, most people carriers or crossovers, all just started and throwing out offensive fumes while idling with their Cats well below working temperature, were using the otherwise deserted electric charge point spaces to load up, right by where people inc babies in push chairs were waiting.  Do you think these people will be able to operate hybrid technology well enough to gain ANY advantage?

Sorry to be blunt, but if you youngsters do not step back and look at history and learn from it, I'm really glad I'm not going to be around!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

I know the plane you mean; the one with the pointy nose and canards. God knows why they'd let that fly anywhere near a city, we get it over Shirley sometimes and it sounds like it's a 747 crashing! Must say having the motor in the 119 is a bit daft, as when it sets off, if you're standing up, the torque of the motor knocks everyone over when it's busy at rush hour.

I imagine the cost would be fantastic too; A friend has the new BMW i8 (similar to  mentioned i3) and that thing is really not cheap, when the equivalent M3 is around £20,000 or so cheaper. The initial outlay just isn't yet logical when you consider how long it takes to get your money back. There's also the fact that the technology is being used to boost the petrol power, not replace it. Now I've been in the previously said friends Porsche 918 and his bewitching Ferrari La Ferrari :) and they are both of them are simply brilliant, but again, they are not really that much faster than an all petrol car can be/is and they still use as much fuel as any other supercar!

Also, the electricity still has to be made, and unless it is from a nuclear power station, there are still massive amounts of pollution.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Administrators

Taking fossil fuel out of the equation entirely? Are these people 110% Retarded? Dont answer that, I've flown with them and already know the answer...

What exactly do they think is going to be providing the energy to charge these planes up, if it did ever happen? Freakin Fairy dust?

It will probably be the same stuff powering their customer service department... B***S**t

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.