Opinion. My Two Cents Worth on the World-Wide Anti-Fossil-Fuel Project.

February 28th, 2008 Posted in Critique, Invention, Global Warming

In transportation any saving on the weight to be moved can be converted through a saving in power to a saving in amount of fossil fuel used. Bring the weight down enough and you can drop the fossil fuel and replace it with another source of energy.

On June 12, 1979 a light airplane flew twenty-two and a half miles across the English Channel powered solely by its foot-pedaling pilot. The summary of this accomplishment is related in Morton Grosser’s book “Gossamer Odyssey. The Triumph of Human-Powered Flight.” (To get some idea of the history and current status of this field try internet search using Human Powered Flight.)

It is no great leap to suggest that lowering the weight of all vehicles– automobile, airplane, truck, bus and so on–while maintaining strength, durability and safety should be an important project in the anti-global hots project which I am advocating as a universal action. The global warming threatens us all. We all should mobilize to head it off. My purpose in venturing into this, for me, unfamiliar territory is to encourage by exaggeration the skilled engineers, craftspeople, inventors, and all the rest of us to get to work.

Project the Gossamer Odyssey flimsy flier to the size of a large passenger airliner–a vehicle that even though big is still wafer-light (thirty years on we would expect the light and sturdy materials to be vastly improved). Now place helium contained in fitted sacks into every nook and cranny (not otherwise needed for materials or people) in the plane. For example the interior of the wings, the seats, the reduced head-space and so on. We can sense the plane chomping to float off–it might even have to be held steady by ground crew while the passengers and flight crew board. The ground crew runs it down the tarmac, a final gentle push and it is air-borne. A simple two cylinder engine is turned on and it motivates, along with the furiously pedaling passengers (each person seated on a stationary bike), the ascent into the the stratosphere where solar panels deployed on every available surface including the pilot’s and crew’s hats (and the seats of their pants in case any bend over and momentarily catch a ray of the sun.) Once the electric motor is engaged turn off the little fossil fuel machine, let the passengers relax and towel down, eat a carry-on cheese sandwich and take a gulp of water from a personal thin natural material canteen. The flight now silent except for the lingering caresses of zephyrs.

Landing should be a cinch. The batteries at maximum charge, simply point the nose down a smidgen, add a little foot power of stronger passengers and if in a hurry restart the two cylinder.

A similar scenario should work for space travel–keep it light, float up to the edge of our atmosphere and reach escape velocity by having the crew flap their arms in unison. At the higher altitude the solar panels take over. Point toward Mars and relax.

The ground-tied vehicle like car, truck, bus, tractor will follow the same principle except for the down-time of rain, snow, and overcast conditions. Use the bike pedal, reserve battery charge, small gasoline engine to carry through or take the day off and work on keeping your domicile air-tight and green.

The main negative blocking this scheme is the limited supply of helium and the energy cost of extracting it from its natural sources. Without the helium–I’ve got a problem Houston–the fantasy will have to be revised. Better luck next time, Avi. (For a start on the element helium try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium)

With helium available–the extraction (using fossil fuel energy) costs and the limited supply issues resolved–some of the airline passenger and freight traffic might be switched to a revitalized dirigible fleet. Slot them in for short flights out of hubs to smaller communities or for regular flights along heavily trafficked corridors like the Northeast routes from Boston down to Atlanta in the USA. Solar panels are easily attached to them and a very small fossil fuel engine would rarely be activated. The down side is sensitivity to weather–high winds and perhaps overcast conditions. Worse come to worse shift passengers to high speed electric trains.

I should have completed my course at the Towne School at the University of Pennsylvania when I had the chance. I would be ready to translate all of this palaver into practical action myself. Might-have-beens versus reality. We could have a similar refrain comrades in time-future when today’s youngsters will say, “oy vey–the heat! The people should have acted back then, no matter the misdirection of the dominating cadres.”

Meanwhile I add my voice to the chorus. “Vaunted engineer,” we sing, “Get your mechanism in gear. End the reign of fossil fuel.”

^^^^^

The supporting sociology is in previous posts. Remember that we are shifting from a sociology textbook mode (blogs past) to farther ranging and more speculative essays. (blogs present.)

And we float off.