My guess (which I repeat is just a guess) is that it doesn't store any fuel at all (excepting some amount for emergencies) but relies on beamed power from the ground.
A fully-fueled 747 weighs something like 5x an empty 747 so you might get some real efficiencies from not having any at all. Plus, this would give all those solar and windfarms in (literal) flyover country a nice place to sell their power without running lines.
You can launch with a sled or some crazy version of an extension cord.
My guess (which I repeat is just a guess) is that it doesn't store any fuel at all (excepting some amount for emergencies) but relies on beamed power from the ground.
A fully-fueled 747 weighs something like 5x an empty 747 so you might get some real efficiencies from not having any at all.
That would be frickin amazing. For cargo flights, especially. Something like that could reduce the cost of air freight by a huge factor.
The biggest efficiency gain, according to Musk, occurs with increase in altitude such that there is less drag. Aircrafts at higher altitudes can travel faster and further than at lower altitudes with equivalent force. Modern fuel powered jets cannot achieve these altitudes because they would starve for oxygen.
Hmm, if you just need to expand the air, could you just use really powerful resistive electric heating? think super powered hair dryer meets on demand hot water heater.
well you need the expansion of air, but maybe there is another way using magnetism or electrostatic or something, but maybe he is just referring to how the props are mechanically turned.
You don't need to expand the air, just shove it out the back of the plane. Right now, one of the most powerful and efficient ways we have to do that is by burning fuel and causing massive thermal expansion in a nozzle that directs most of it backwards.
