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Re:Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency by tgtweak on Thursday July 23, 2026 @04:16PM (#49027434)
Says that it's boost-only in all the literature I could see, so it can only add power to the prop not generate with it.
Re:Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency by Melatonic on Thursday July 23, 2026 @04:26PM (#49027567)
Yea that makes sense. Can't be hitting stall speed. Although maybe there's an argument for less load / wear on the turbine motor if the electric motors could be involved during landing ?

Or maybe you keep your downsized turbine motor running closer to peak efficiency even during landing and increase the mechanical energy harvesting to your APU or alternator thing or whatever to control speed and use that to charge a small supercapacitor. In the event of an aborted landing the supercapacitor could provide a boost of thrust to your electric motors. This would keep wear on the battery lower and also allow it to dump energy at its peak efficiency

Re:Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency by Toutouxc on Friday July 24, 2026 @01:19AM (#49031474)
Supercapacitors are heavy and basically useless for any kind of propulsion. Note how neither e-bikes nor EVs use them. You need a proper lithium battery if you need any usable amount of energy.
Re:Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency by Melatonic on Friday July 24, 2026 @06:04PM (#49042171)
Makes sense. I suppose good batteries may have enough output anyways
Re:Hybrid-Electric Aicraft Engine Targeting 30% Fuel Efficiency by Toutouxc on Friday July 24, 2026 @01:14AM (#49031449)
> you'd have to nose down at a very aggressive angle to actually pick up speed

Sorry but what the hell are you talking about? Airliners are heavy, very aerodynamic, very easy to overspeed and they regularly actively brake on descent!

Unless there are other constraints on the approach, the point of the entire descent phase is to have the engines IDLING the whole time. The FMC actually calculates the descent profile backwards, starting from the earliest known constraint (e.g. a certain point at 5000 ft) and extending that back into the air accounting for the expected weight and drag of the plane. The descent phase often begins more than a hundred kilometers from the destination. Remember how they tell you in the cabin that the plane is starting to descent and you should put your laptop away etc? That's when the engines go to idle and if everything goes right, they won't spool up again until just dozens of second before touchdown. The goal of the entire industry is to have that happen as often as possible, on as many airports as possible.

If the plane is a bit heavier or less draggy than expected, or if the approach requires a steeper descent at some point, the airplane will calculate all that (in advance!) and let the pilot know (e.g. a DRAG REQUIRED message) and will require spoiler deployment. This is very common.