will we ever see a hybrid airplane?

Question

our county (san luis obispo county) just go a brand new 440,000 hybrid city bus and made me wonder if planes will ever be hybrid....they polute the air more than buses do. what do you think?

Answer 1

In a sense, we already have them.

Blimps or airships get their lift from one energy source (helium) and their motion from another (propellors, usually). They are one possible future for cargo flights, where speed is less vital (2)

Both solar-powered (3) and hydrogen-fuelled (4) flight has been a reality for several years, although not at the passenger-carrying stage.

There are many concepts on the drawing boards of the world for low-energy flight systems, some of which go for lower fuel consumption, but most of which go for higher numbers of passengers for the same amount of fuel. (1)

Answer 2

Probably not. The advantages of hybrid cars (and buses) are associated with frequent starts and stops. The battery charges up from a generator that turns the car's kinetic energy in to electrical during braking, and an electric motor adds a burst of power needed only when accelerating. Planes don't start and stop nearly as much, and jets aren't compatible with electric power.

You could build a propeller plane where the motor is electric at take off and gas at cruise, and braking upon landing generates electricity. I doubt it would be worth the extra fuel of having to fly around the extra weight of the electric motors, generators, and batteries, since they'd only be use for a short time each trip.

Planes have been proposed that fly on hydrogen though. That would make sense if hydrogen were not made from coal like it is now.

Answer 3

Eventually we'll see aircraft powered by something other than fossil fueled jets.

But they'll probably be the last thing to change. Oil has a very good energy/weight ratio, crucial for aircraft.

We should change cars and electric power plants first. It's a lot easier and they're far more important as a source of global warming. Airplanes can wait. One plane emits a lot, but there just aren't that many planes.

Answer 4

Hybrid cars rely on electric motors to turn the crankshaft when the internal combustion engine is not engaged.

Airplanes get into the air with jet engines, requiring large amounts of thrust to attain lift. Currently, no energy source is as compact as jet fuel to make this possible. Adding a large cache of batteries on a plane will only increase the weight and make it impossible to achieve lift.