Make fuel from Water?

Mar 25, 2005 26 Replies

................I think that's right, it's been awhile since I was reading about the Komet several years ago.

.......I remember that weight was a huge dillemma for the engineers who designed the Komet because of the scarcity of aluminum & others lightweight alloys during WWII in Germany. There are no remnants of the thousands of aircraft that were shot down over German occupied Europe because every scrap was melted down and used for the German war effort. The Komet couldn't afford to carry a lead/acid battery because of its weight, I'd guess. Every small amount of weight was that much less fuel on a plane that barely had enough fuel to be launched up to bomber formations that were usually flying at high altitudes. I remember reading that the Germans recruited only their smallest pilots for the Komet and that most of them were bantam-weights compared to the average fighter pilot. There was even a plan to train women and adolescent boys to fly it that never got implemented before the war ended.

.................The two minute burnout time tells you why rocket propulsion will never be practical on a winged aircraft. Also, what that article didn't mention is that the fuel tank probably has to be jettisoned for obvious safety reasons before landing. If there was an engine malfunction in the first few seconds after liftoff where the fuel tank couldn't yet be jettisoned. cremation ceremonies for Mr Rutan could be performed right on the runway......after the fact.

Here's some information on that fuel that is naptha/water. Check it out...and don't gargle with it!

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Dan

All 15 flights of the EZ-Rocket were done without jettisoning of the belly fuel tank, which is physically impossible. The liquid oxygen, which weighs about three times as much as the alcohol fuel can be dumped in flight, and this has been demonstrated in flight. Also safe landing with full tanks, less the propellant required to get to take-off speed, is possible.

The idea of jettisoning the belly tank never even occured to us, considering that the EZ-Rocket's objective was to demonstrate economic operations.

Jens Lerch

.............Thanks for responding Jens. I guess I'm just paranoid about the possibility of a hard landing causing an impact on that low-slung fuel tank. If a plane similar to this ever did become certified for general use, do you envisage some other configuration that takes into account the pilots who aren't experienced and qualified as Burt Rutan?

economic

Sure, for structural and aerodynamic reasons it would be advantageous to store all the propellant int the fuselage, and that could well be a design requirement. The EZ-Rocket's standard wing tanks were empty, by the way.

The EZ-Rocket was flown by Dick Rutan on all but one flight, and once by Mike Melville. Burt Rutan and his company were not involved in the EZ-Rocket project at all, except for the fact that he designed the Long-EZ some 25 years ago.

Jens Lerch

...............My bad. I can't remember which Rutan is which it seems.

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