With the continuing increase in the cost of jet fuel, the future of cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages may depend on the airline industry coming up with an alternative way of powering its future jets. VoltAir is working on developing a zero emissions airplane that will be powered by electricity.
The key to VoltAirs design is a pusher prop ducted fan and its electric motors. Its twin co-axial contra-rotating design delivers excellent propelling power highly efficiently. VoltAir is trying to create engines made of high temperature super conducting materials.
The plan is for the engine to be bathed in liquid nitrogen to reduce its temperature. Superconducting motors would waste none of the electrical energy pushed into them, thereby making the plane ultra efficient.
The airframe of the plane would be made of mostly composites which would make it extremely strong and significantly lighter in weight. Its wings will use the same advanced curling wing tip that Boeing employs in its 787 Dreamliner to reduce drag.
The challenge of recharging the planes engine has been solved by the battery design which is mounted in the cargo hold so that it can be swapped out similarly to how a pallet of cargo is moved. This has the additional benefit of speeding up ground time compared to refueling a conventional jet which saves money.
Before this plane design can move from concept to reality VoltAir needs to produce finished electric motors. Designers of the plane think this will happen relatively soon.
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