I do think there's a really... Like, I think
the optimal air transport solution is VTOL
electric supersonic plane. And it actually
works together quite well for a bunch of reasons.
In particluar: the higher you go the better
the electric, the more efficient
the electric aircraft is, whereas if you have
a combustion aircraft, as you get higher it
tends to get worse, cause you have
kind of a fixed aperture and like the engine
is, the hull in the part of the engine is
a fixed size. So you have to pick a
particular cruising altitude and so you gotta
figure out how do you get the right amount
of air at sea level all the way through
really high altitude. And then you've got
this whole issue of supersonic combustion
that - you know, having to slow down the air
down and it ends up being not that efficient.
But electric aircraft would just get better
and better as it got higher. And then
electric motors have a higher power to weight
ratio than a combustion engine so, you could
actually have the power to do the
vertical take-off and landing part with a
fairly small motor, compared to combustion.
And then you could get rid of the elevator
and rudder, so you don't need the rear-control
services if you can build the motor.
