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Truespeak said: "Wind power works. Anyone who says it isn't perfect is correct, but no power generation is perfect, and we still use them all. I'm in the US,..." [read]

Hybrid Airplane-Car for Commuters of the Future?

by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 05. 8.08
Cars & Transportation

Electric airplane with two side-by-side seats, the Taurus by Pipistrel

Today I am talking about making aviation available to everyone as a daily means of transportation. Transportation changes society.

So says Richard Jones, a technical fellow at Boeing Phantom Works, the advanced R&D unit of Boeing. Jones' vision for a new mobility was welcomed by the audience at the 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium in San Francisco. The event is sponsored by the CAFE Foundation, a non-profit organization advocating personal air travel. Jones believes that airplanes can be designed which are easier to fly than a car is to drive. But what does it mean for commuting, city planning, and the climate crisis?

Read more: Hybrid Airplane-Car for Commuters of the Future?

Boeing Flies First Ever Hydrogen Fuel Cell Plane

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04. 3.08
Cars & Transportation

Boeing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Plane

It's very light, it didn't fly very fast or very far, but the plane in the photo above made aviation history by making the first manned flight powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. The Boeing Research & Technology Europe team in Madrid, Spain, modified a two-seat Dimona motor-glider and installed a hybrid propulsion system based on a hydrogen fuel cell and lithium-ion batteries.

There were three test flights in February and March around the Ocaña airfield, south of Madrid.

Read more: Boeing Flies First Ever Hydrogen Fuel Cell Plane

The New Air Force One Hybrid, 15-20% More Efficient

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 04. 1.08
Cars & Transportation

Air Force One hybrid

Our friends at HowStuffWorks had a look at the new presidential plane, Air Force One Hybrid. They break it down for you, from construction to operation.

It's particularly interesting to learn how the hybrid system works. "Air Force One Hybrid uses more than 2,000 lead-acid batteries in a parallel hybrid team with its four regular jet engines. That means that the plane's engines rely on a combination of fuel and battery power to turn, making them work more efficiently."

More details on fuel production after the jump.

Read more: The New Air Force One Hybrid, 15-20% More Efficient

China to Build 97 Airports in 12 Years & the Future of Air Travel

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 03.25.08
Cars & Transportation

China Beijing Airport

According to China's People's Daily, 97 new airports will be built in China in the next 12 years. That will bring the total number to 244 airports by 2020. At the end of 2006, the number was 147, and it is expected that there will be 192 airports by 2010. This means that 82% of Chinese people will live within 100 kilometers of an airport by 2020.

It's not clear exactly what criteria the People's Daily uses to define what types of airports are included in its count, but if we compare apples to apples and look in the CIA factbook, we find that there are 5,143 airports (paved runways) in the USA vs. 403 in China. That helps keep things in perspective...

Read more: China to Build 97 Airports in 12 Years & the Future of Air Travel

Airlines Cut Flights and Planes to Save Fuel

by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 03.20.08
Cars & Transportation

airlines are under pressure from rising fuel costs
Image courtesy of the DK Report via Stock High.

We’ve already seen the profits of Ryanair and British Airways squeezed by higher oil prices, not to mention, in the words of Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary, ‘eco-loonies’ avoiding unnecessary air travel. Now we’re hearing similar concerns over this side of the Atlantic, at least when it comes to oil prices. According to USA Today, airlines are planning on fewer flights, less planes, and a shift to more efficient engines in response to a 30% rise in fuel costs:

Read more: Airlines Cut Flights and Planes to Save Fuel

US Airlines Must Pay the Price of Carbon Emissions or Lose EU Flights

by George Spyros, New York City, USA on 03.16.08
Cars & Transportation

airline-carbon-footprint.jpgIf you're not attempting to reduce your airline's carbon emissions by flying the first all-biofuel jumbo-jet flight, the efficacy of which is in and of itself up for debate, the EU requires your airline to subscribe to a carbon trading *cough* scheme. And that includes you, good old U.S. of Airline, so get scheming. Yesterday the EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot warned US airlines that they must pay for carbon dioxide emissions or face a curb on flights to the European Union. The operative concept here being to curb flights rather than carbon levels themselves.

Read more: US Airlines Must Pay the Price of Carbon Emissions or Lose EU Flights

Save Your Suitcase, Cut Your Carbon (A Little)

by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 03.13.08
Cars & Transportation

Lost-Luggage.jpgThe overwhelming problem today with air travel is its huge carbon overhead. But there are also those smaller, nagging issues with taking a plane - endless security, bad (or nonexistant) food, lack of leg room - and when you've reached your destination, the possibility of lost luggage. A Swedish start-up, Kamen Ltd., is linking together the problem of luggage gone astray and CO2 emissions by selling a luggage-tracing ID tag with built-in carbon offsets. GreenBagTag is a combination of the GlobalBagTag ID system and pre-purchased offsets from the Carbon Neutral Company. There are 3 levels of GreenBagTag - a pale green card offsets .8 tons of CO2 for $36.95, bright green offsets 2.7 tons for around $82.00 and deep green offsets 6 tons for $164 - the tag is good for a year's registration of a bag owner's info in GlobalBagTag's database. Card can be re-tanked with additional CO2 offsets at gearngadget.com
GreenBagTag.jpgFinders of a misplaced tagged bag call GlobalBagTag which after ID'ing via the serial number (no personal info is on the tag) sends the owner an SMS with the bag's location info. GreenBagTag may not solve the problem of CO2 offsets doing too little to actually cut carbon, but they do save you from having to fill out those little paper luggage tags every time you go to the airport. Via:: Newsdesk.se (Swedish)
Luggage image courtesy of Chor Ip via Flickr

Survey: Was American Airlines Wrong?

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 6.08
Cars & Transportation

aa2.jpgEnvironmentalists say the darndest things. Friends of the Earth is accusing American Airlines of reckless behaviour by flying five passengers from Chicago to London on a boeing 777, burning 22,000 gallons of fuel and producing 43 tons of CO2 per passenger. They say "Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel."

This TreeHugger agrees that Flying is Dying and thinks that we have to rework our transportation system to be more efficient in using fossil fuels and creating less greenhouse gas, but AA is a "scheduled" airline and planes follow them. AA had "a plane load of west-bound passengers stranded in London Heathrow who were due to fly back to the US on the same aircraft." They certainly didn't make any money spending £30,000 to do it.

Tim Haab of Environmental Economics notes that "The total emissions were the same whether the plane was empty or not. OK, maybe a planeful of fat Americans uses up a little extra fuel than an empty one, but you get the point."


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