No Oil= No Aircraft?

[Khandro]

With an estimated 50 years only of the world's oil left (BP stat.), though I can see maybe a form of alternative ground transport may be found; electric cars for example.
Nothing can surely produce the power required to fly any sort of viable aircraft and yet we seem to behave as if flight will continue forever, as we consider building and extending airports.
How could this form of transport possibly prevail?

[Khandro]

jomifl; 69.71 % of statistics are made up on the spot, you should know that :0)

[Mosaic]

Just a thought - how did Ashes players cross the globe to fixtures befoe the Second World War? I'm guessing long-haul flights post-date 1945. So did the teams land-hop, or did they take a liner?

[DTCwordfan]

by tub, mosaic.....playing some matches en route in outposts like Aden.

[Mosaic]

Wouldn't that be a way to do it now! All the advantages of slow travel plus all the communications gizmos and t'interweb and all.

[Khandro]

Mosaic; //did they take a liner?// Yes, and it could take six weeks to get there!

[DTCwordfan]

Mosaic, have a gander at this....

http://www.ssgreatbritain.org/story/england-cricket-team

[DTCwordfan]

and.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_cricket_team_in_England_in_1948

[Mosaic]

Good links DTC!

[jomifl]

/jomifl; 69.71 % of statistics are made up on the spot, you should know that :0) /
A bloke down the pub told me it was only 69.705%

[Khandro]

jomifl; If 82.2% of your electricity is nuclear and the plant is so close to you, I'm suspicious that you may be running your house from an illegal extension lead.

[jomifl]

Khandro, you wouldn't suspect that if you saw the price of extension leads in France. :-)

[Khandro]

I have found this interesting article on the subject by Robert Wilson, a PhD student in mathematical ecology; it makes for thoughtful reading.
http://www.theenergycollective.com/robertwilson190/351596/flying-without-fossil-fuels-need-high-energy-density

[jomifl]

The information in your link is indisputable and well understood by anyone who has looked into the subject of elecrictiy generation from solar power.
Solar energy can be collected on the ground and converted into hydrogen which can be used to make the hydrocarbon fuels used by conventional jet engines. Passenger aircraft powered directly by solar energy are never going to happen.

[Khandro]

Yeah, solar flight is a definite no-no. I didn't realise when I posted, that above link is followed bellow it by some interesting and learned-sounding posts, some with science-fiction sounding proposals, though in the end they all seem to be flawed.

[New Judge]

I haven’t read all of this but there’s no need to panic. The world has always had “only 50 years of oil left” ever since I was a child. Aircraft manufacturers and operators are not so foolish as the general public.

Of course the supply is not infinite but it will last considerably more than 50 years because there are vast, as yet untapped reserves in places such as the South Atlantic, Antarctica, the Arctic and elsewhere. Recovery of much of this would currently be deemed economically unviable but oil companies have a habit of making the unviable suddenly profitable when necessary (who would have thought of drilling for oil in the North Sea sixty years ago?). Of course even this will eventually run out but London is unlikely to have its additional runway operational before it does. :-)