Has anyone ever done researched on using compressed air as an aircraft propelent?

Answer 1

Yes, its called a ram-jet.........#######

Answer 2

Yes,
but at the air pressures where most aircraft fly there isn't enough air pressure to make it worth it. At those pressures turbofan and turboprop jet engines both compress air to operate the jet engine. The ram jet engine needs to travel fast enough to have a high enough air pressure for combustion.

The SR-171 Blackbird (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR-71_Blackbird) used a special method of air compression that worked only at supersonic speeds. When it reached those speeds then it could use the air itself as a propellant.

At speeds beyond Mach 1 the Spike on the engines was extended to direct the shock wave inside of the engine. This created a portion of high pressure air which could then be vented out the rear. According to the article: " it was estimated that 58% of the available thrust was being provided by the inlet, 17% by the compressor and the remaining 25% by the afterburner." So the simple air pressure provided MOST of the thrust at supersonic speeds.

Technically balloons and soda rockets do use compressed air as a propellant, but they don't fly very far and are not practice for aircraft.

An alternate possible future aircraft would utilize a fusion engine to pull in the air for propellant and actually partial fuse it before expelling it.

Answer 3

Technically, a jet aircraft does compress air to achieve part of it's thrust. That said, the mass of air needed to propel an aircraft into the air, much less provide thrust for any length of flight would not be efficient, as well as being to heavy to be practical. While possible, the payload capacity would be very small. As for your question, using the word "done", why did you use the past tense for "research" in your sentence. Are the schools not teaching proper English and grammar any more? Drop the "ed" on research and the sentence would be correct. Trust me, such things are very important to your future. Bad English means a tossed resume'.

Answer 4

Hmmm let's think about this for a second.. A very noble idea but one that I think unfortunately won't fly. You would need a H U G E tank that would weigh alot. You might travel down the end of the runway but that's about it my friend. You cannot beat the efficiency of today's Turbo fan jet engines. Sure they could be a little better as most things in life but they are pretty efficient. The compressed air theory sounds dangerous also..anything that's "compressed" scares me on the ground much less in the air.

Answer 5

Not in the manner that you are thinking, as this is not a viable solution; there is only so much compressed air that you can store, and it is also heavy, so not conducive to flight.

However, jet engines in principle, is superheating air at the intake and compressing it to a smaller exhaust thereby creating thrust.

Answer 6

As a teenager I worked in a factory that made cans filled with compressed air & silicone. My friends and I would puncture the bottom and watch them fly 3 -4 hundred feet.

Answer 7

Research? I've punched a hole in a CO2 cartridge.

Mike M: You've got to be kidding. Mythbusters tried to fload a raft with helium. It was the size of a warehouse.

Edit:
Oh, I just watched the video and I really don't know.

Answer 8

yea in like 8th grade...we pumped air into 2 liter bottles then released the air and it went flying up...if thats what you mean

Answer 9

Something tells me a Boeing 747 wouldn't get far.

Answer 10

yeah its called a soda bottle rocket.

Answer 11

Watch this video all about this type of aircraft

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tPbu5UeW4uk