I just took a look at the Feb 24 2007 issue of New Scientist. This is a Brit science weekly, it poses the question "Can maverick technologies turn aviation into an eco success." What followed was a number of flying wing, lifting body, laminar flow control measures and "open rotor engines" (props). It doesn't seem very different from what I was looking at in the 1950s.

One sentence particularly took my eye, "A single flight across the atlantic (by jetliner) can guzzle about 60,000 litres - more fuel than the average motorist uses in 50yrs of driving - generating around 140 tonnes of carbon dioxide." (nearly as long as I have been driving!)

I found it interesting, if a bit disturbing. It worries me, where the "No Smoking" brigade will turn their attention when all the Marlboro men are gone?

Just as a point of interest, I seem to remember that there was long drawn out litigation over a lifting body aircraft designer and Pan Am. The designer successfully built and flew the aircraft. It had three engines and carried numerous passengers, not one of those delightful experimantal lightplanes. Sorry, but my failing memory doesn't get me any futher.




old git - - - - - - - aka John L.