On the way Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 With the advent of electric engines for prop aircraft, light the re-engining of DH Beavers with Magni500 electric engines, it should be time to look at a small and lightweight nuclear reactor to power these electric engines, rather then batteries. Something simple to operate and maintain. Something jetttisonable if anything goes wrong. I read somewhere that the world's smallest nuclear reactor weight under 5kg. Not sure what the power yield on that was. The range on the aircraft would be phenomenal vs a battery powered electric aircraft. Any studies out there looking into this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Galbraith Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 You only have to look at what happened when the Russians tried an Isotope fuel engine which blew up, to see there are significant issues with this idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWB Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 Vastly too expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 I suspect cooling a reactor achieving the needed power density would be incredibly difficult, with the added problem of the weight of shielding if you wanted anyone to fly on it. All of this is before you consider any safety or political issues that might arise from flying reactors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 4 hours ago, On the way said: With the advent of electric engines for prop aircraft, light the re-engining of DH Beavers with Magni500 electric engines, it should be time to look at a small and lightweight nuclear reactor to power these electric engines, rather then batteries. Something simple to operate and maintain. Something jetttisonable if anything goes wrong. I read somewhere that the world's smallest nuclear reactor weight under 5kg. Not sure what the power yield on that was. The range on the aircraft would be phenomenal vs a battery powered electric aircraft. Any studies out there looking into this? There are Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, but they present a series of quite major drawbacks when used in Earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrustMe Posted February 17, 2022 Share Posted February 17, 2022 The Russians have these in R&D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shootER5 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 Convair NB-36H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenneth P. Katz Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 The three horrible, terrible, inherently bad ideas in aerospace vehicle design: Nuclear air-breathing propulsion for aircraft Single stage-to-orbit launch vehicle Flying cars aka roadable airplanes These ideas seem to be irresistable and yet they never work or work well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 Flying cars could work... until the moment that people realize they need full pilot license even if they want to only drive them on the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RETAC21 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 9 hours ago, Kenneth P. Katz said: The three horrible, terrible, inherently bad ideas in aerospace vehicle design: Nuclear air-breathing propulsion for aircraft Single stage-to-orbit launch vehicle Flying cars aka roadable airplanes These ideas seem to be irresistable and yet they never work or work well. Hopefully, we can count on Elon Musk building a Nuclear air-breathing, single stage-to-orbit launch vehicle that also is a flying car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glenn239 Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 I want an atomic powered cell phone, because recharging all the time is a bother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 (edited) I think there actually are very low power batteries made from nuclear waste. Edited March 1, 2022 by Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 Radio isotope generators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Have been used in pacemakers in the past, but they're not ideal for most purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futon Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 17 hours ago, bojan said: Flying cars could work... until the moment that people realize they need full pilot license even if they want to only drive them on the ground. It may not be so farfetched. Airlines are only a step or two away from being flown entirely autonomously. Autonomous driving is being introduced in cars as well. A flying car probably won't hand over the flying to the driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunday Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Trains could be operated autonomously since decades ago, especially in high traffic lines, and subway trains without driver cab are not so uncommon nowadays. But the problem of driving a train is simpler, as steering is not necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bojan Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, futon said: It may not be so farfetched. Airlines are only a step or two away from being flown entirely autonomously. Autonomous driving is being introduced in cars as well. A flying car probably won't hand over the flying to the driver. Cars are way less problematic to fully automate then planes. Plus there is a marketing and liability issue, none cares for one "fender bender" per day in any city, while any news of problem with aircraft are big news and potential company killing lawsuits (unless you bribe off aviation authorities like Boeing did...). Technology is not there and will not be there for a while to have fully autonomous planes w/o pilot transporting people. Another thing, cheapest thing about aircraft is a pilot, no matter how good his salary is and how much his training costs. Because for every pilot you need to have number of various maintenance personal running checks daily. And those people who can afford it tend to hire their own drivers anyway, leaving only real enthusiasts to bother with piloting. So not even market is there ATM. Edited March 2, 2022 by bojan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KV7 Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 4 hours ago, bojan said: Cars are way less problematic to fully automate then planes. Plus there is a marketing and liability issue, none cares for one "fender bender" per day in any city, while any news of problem with aircraft are big news and potential company killing lawsuits (unless you bribe off aviation authorities like Boeing did...). Technology is not there and will not be there for a while to have fully autonomous planes w/o pilot transporting people. Another thing, cheapest thing about aircraft is a pilot, no matter how good his salary is and how much his training costs. Because for every pilot you need to have number of various maintenance personal running checks daily. And those people who can afford it tend to hire their own drivers anyway, leaving only real enthusiasts to bother with piloting. So not even market is there ATM. They are at best a sort of compromised light helicopter. And there isn't much of a market for private helicopter transport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BansheeOne Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 Y'all thinking way too small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssnake Posted July 10, 2022 Share Posted July 10, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RETAC21 Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 There are always spoilsports lurking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
17thfabn Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 On 2/28/2022 at 9:58 PM, Kenneth P. Katz said: The three horrible, terrible, inherently bad ideas in aerospace vehicle design: Nuclear air-breathing propulsion for aircraft Single stage-to-orbit launch vehicle Flying cars aka roadable airplanes Where is my jet pack? I should have had a jet pack by 2001. Here it is mid 2022 and still NO JET PACK!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P Allen Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 On 2/17/2022 at 7:08 AM, On the way said: Something jetttisonable if anything goes wrong. 😲 What possible good would that do? It would simply change the trajectory of the falling power plant by separating it from the air frame. Choosing between having an entire nuc aircraft falling on my house or just its nuclear plant doesn't really give me much choice, does it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ssnake Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 At least the passengers would not get irradiated, just some peasants on the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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