Re:Aviation Is on a Low-Carbon Flight Path
by Alupis on Thursday November 07, 2019 @11:20AM
(#21474537)
> What happens when the plane mechanically fails? Having 600 tons of metal raining down on a population sounds quite dangerous
Simply put, that's just not how aviation works.
Mechanical failures aren't uncommon in aviation, but for an aircraft to not be able to divert and return to the ground, a lot has to go wrong all at once. It's infinitesimally rare for all systems to fail at once on an airliner. There simply isn't a problem of airliners dropping out of the sky, ever. They're incredibly robust machines.
However, with your idea, we'd be relying on a single system to prevent catastrophic failure. That's a massive step backwards for aviation.
That doesn't even begin covering the problems with delivering enough electricity over this cable to power an airliner at takeoff... That cable would need to be a very thick gauge of wire and very heavy - causing all sorts of it's own problems.
Simply put, that's just not how aviation works.
Mechanical failures aren't uncommon in aviation, but for an aircraft to not be able to divert and return to the ground, a lot has to go wrong all at once. It's infinitesimally rare for all systems to fail at once on an airliner. There simply isn't a problem of airliners dropping out of the sky, ever. They're incredibly robust machines.
However, with your idea, we'd be relying on a single system to prevent catastrophic failure. That's a massive step backwards for aviation.
That doesn't even begin covering the problems with delivering enough electricity over this cable to power an airliner at takeoff... That cable would need to be a very thick gauge of wire and very heavy - causing all sorts of it's own problems.