Air Power

[RJM62]

No, not that kind of air power.

This company claims to be getting ready to sell cars that run on air. Compressed air, that is. Three minutes for a fill-up, or plug it in and let the onboard compressor do it in four hours.

Apparently they actually have some of these things running overseas, so it's not a complete pipe dream. So that got me wondering: Why not an air-powered airplane? High-pressure, lightweight composite tanks in the wings could hold quite a lot of compressed air.

Rich

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Why not an air-powered airplane? High-pressure, lightweight composite tanks in the wings could hold quite a lot of compressed air.

Power-to-weight ratio, I'd guess. Enough air to make a plane fly would probably be heavy enough to make it not fly.

 

[Pi1otguy]

Why not an air-powered airplane? High-pressure, lightweight composite tanks in the wings could hold quite a lot of compressed air.

Because airplanes need more HP, thrust, newtons, or whatever unit of energy per unit of weight then a car. In theory an airplanes engine is not only pushing/pulling forward but also resisting gravity while a car only moves forward.