-
Aircraft won’t be getting ‘clean’ for a good while yet, I’m afraid.
Very true, as aircraft (or for that matter any mode of transport that employs heavy machinery) will never get 'clean'. This is because of the inevitable problem that you have to expend a lot of energy to move it. And it doesn't matter in that whether the machinery ends up moving very fast or very far unless the question is answered why the journey in question should even be made. As to what NickCJ posted, it's not only for resource consumption that this problem exists, but also for how much machinery we invent. The more we invent, the more we want to use it, and the more problems accumulate, e.g. 'oh, as a response to the oil crisis, we'll just produce more small cars that consume less fuel' and look what happened--sprawl, spatial dissociation, etc.--not just more journeys of the same kind/distance as were made before.
It's only when it begins to appear that a given resource is final that people begin to modulate their behaviour, e.g. in response to roadspace in London. This effect is never good enough (it's everybody else's problem) and usually too late.
You are reading a single comment by @Oliver Schick and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
Oliver Schick
Aircraft won’t be getting ‘clean’ for a good while yet, I’m afraid. Turbofan engines are far more efficient these days and aircraft design means they’re a lot more aerodynamically efficient, but this all means that the cost of travel comes down and makes more people want to fly, which means more flights which then negates the savings in fuel by being more efficient. It’s the same with cars - build a car that runs on hydrogen that’ll be really clean and cheap and every fucker will want one and so that means more roads, congestion etc. You can’t win.
Aircraft are wonderful things (I’m an ex-civil aircraft engineer) but the issue isn’t the aircraft itself, it’s the fact that travel is being so heavily touted so everyone want to fly. Right now there is no hydrogen or electrical alternative to kerosene engines because the technology is nowhere near ready (burning oil still has by far the best calorie value).
It’s our mindset that has to change, and seeing as so much is tied up in air travel, from airlines to airports to the travel industry itself and the reliance on tourism as a primary income for entire nations, I can’t see how that’s going to happen any time soon. I personally think that business travel will fade out as technology means that people simply won’t need to travel to NY for meetings anywhere near as much in the near future, which is clearly a good thing, but that means that airlines and the associated industries will then focus on leisure travel even more. It’s all pretty depressing.