Caporegime
Slightly different in the whole "using fuel" endeavor though.
Yes, I'm aware it depends on how you get your electricity, but at point of use it's zero-emission vs huge emission.
Supersonic planes of the future
- Thread starter Stu999
- Start date
Yes, I'm aware it depends on how you get your electricity, but at point of use it's zero-emission vs huge emission.
Man of Honour
My point is that the high performance, expensive, fringe appeal use cases come first with emerging technology, with mass adoption/efficiency driving being something that follows on. The Tesla story is a good one because God Emperor Musk has discussed it many times in interviews when explaining why they did the super expensive, fringe appeal car first and the affordable, mass appeal car later as opposed to the other way around. The Wright brothers didn't try to make a 747 first either, should they have not bothered?
I'm aware that my point is extreme, but it stands up IMO. Also I'm aware Elon Musk is in fact neither a God or an Emperor, and is part of a team, but I can't hide my love for him ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Caporegime
Of course they should have bothered. The thing is we (as humanity) are embarking on a shift from internal combustion to electric propulsion. I think the money being piled into this should instead be a shift away from the technologies of the past (at the end of the day, this is still "old" technology with some investment into efficiency and manufacturing techniques) and into other forms of zero-emission* propulsion. You wouldn't for example want a consortium looking into making a new more efficient coal-fired power station, would you, we're at the wrong point in time for that now.
*at point of use
Man of Honour
Why can't we do both? It isn't a zero sum game, and it isn't as if the only thing required to produce hypersonic aircraft is more powerful engines. Don't you see how there will be obvious crossover there?
