Five Incredible Theoretical Aircraft

[@ihatemegatron216]

To the writer of this video. Thank you for acknowledging the existence of the ace combat series. It's nice to know someone other than me enjoys the series.

[@anarchyantz1564]

Simon: The Sun is a natural and free resource for all! Nestle: We don't think the Sun is a basic human right....

[@Sideprojects]

Allegedly.

[@anarchyantz1564]

@@Sideprojects In my opinion.

[@fnfdmgjfndf]

Some argue.

[@guidokorber2866]

The German government did actually implement this a couple years ago: If you have photovoltaics above a certain size for your own use, you have to pay for the electricity you generated and used yourself.

[@jeffreyhill1011]

@@guidokorber2866 is this still a thing? I'm in the US so it doesn't really matter but I have close to 100 panels lol. I power my almost 6,000 (almost 558 m² give or take) sq ft, 5 bedroom 4 bathroom all electric home with them and the lighting and climate control for the two 7,000sqft (650 m²) workshops on my 6300 acres (2550 hectares) property. I would owe the government a TON of money!

[@dr4d1s]

Simon, I am glad you actually went into detail with Hydrogen. Most KZbin videos are like "Its the best thing ever!" (in fairness it is really cool) but they never talk about the challenges/limitations of actually working with Hydrogen or of the production of Hydrogen fuel and the insane amount of electricity it takes to make it. Good on you man, keep up the great work!

[@enisra_bowman]

yeah, when some talk about hydrogen and the future, they forget quiete a few things: like that most come from coal aka. fossil carbon-hydrogen or that burning only produce "just water" in a pure Oxygen atmosphere, but to dumb that our is also mostly filled with nitrogen and burned with nitrogen produces some other unhealthy stuff Or that the efficency is in the best case about 25% and it's better to store excessive energy from renewable sorces by heating up stones and use that as a "battery"

[@riccardosartori3822]

He failed to mention that the current hydrogen cars are not using ICEs but fuel cells

[@anarchyantz1564]

Physics Girl who I used to respect, did a three part series when she "left" PBS to go it alone sponsored by Toyota and their Hydrogen powered car. Unlike everything she has ever done in the past the entire thing was 99.9% an Advert about the car and how wonderful Toyota are. Made it out that oh yeah look I just happened to come to the fuelling station for it and look at all these other Hydrogen powered cars there are....Riiiiight. Actually unsubscribed after being a fan of hers since almost day one due to basically being a sell out. Was expecting an unbiased show of the tech, the limitations etc but no. I lost count of how many times she mentioned the car name and Toyota just within the first 10 minutes.

[@crinkly.love-stick]

@@riccardosartori3822 I thought fuel cells were, well, fuel cells? A gas tank, by another name.

[@riccardosartori3822]

@@crinkly.love-stick no, they are a place where a controlled chemical reaction takes place, so technically they are "combustion" meaning they use an oxidation reaction to produce power but they are not conventional ICE's. In short a fuel cell produces electricity through a controlled chemical reaction, said electricity is then provided either to batteries or directly to electric motors.

[@stickplayer2]

Minor correction: The Hindenburg was not "powered by hydrogen". It was powered by 4 diesel engines. it was made bouyant by hydrogen.

[@echothebm]

And theoretically it's demise was coused by Static electricity (just one of several Theories)

[@three6nine992]

And it was its "skin" that made it burn so horrificly....

[@jeffreyhill1011]

@@three6nine992 well to be fair the giant balloon of hydrogen (maybe 3 balloons I can't remember how it was assembled I just know the US wouldn't sell helium so they used hydrogen) didn't help, the skin was just flammable AND a great conductor of static electricity!

[@matsv201]

Well.. that is ... partly not true. Sort of. A diesel engine is a type of engine, its not locked in to a specific fuel. The diesel engines on Hindenburg was multi fuel, they could be powered by diesel-oil, but mostly they was powered by something called blue-gas. A gas that is a mixture of different flammable gases that have a density of about the same as air. This way a couple of bags in side of Hindenburg was filled with bluegas in steed of hydrogen. The reason for it was to not get the airship more and more boyant after it burned of diesel. Now some airships (i don´t know if this is true for hindenburg) also burned diesel-oil mixed with hydrogen, in that case, simply selecting between diesel and hydrogen to increase or decrease the buoyancy... If that is true specifically for hindenburg, im not sure, but it might be.

[@freddan6fly]

@@three6nine992 "And it was its "skin" that made it burn so horrificly...." - nope it was the hydrogen that burned.

[@Brandon-dy8us]

We landed on the moon 66 years after the first plane was made. Do you know how insane it is how fast we advanced compared to the rest of the human timeline?

[@greenanubis]

Yeah, most people are aware of that. And they are scared shitless that gods/space wizards will smite us for our arrogance, lol.

[@adambartlett114]

@@greenanubis Meh, aware, yes... Scared shitless, not remotely... I don't worry about stuff that isn't going to happen & isn't based on reality. Also, the answer to op is simple, knowledge & technology is an exponential growth situation. It's why that is we survive long enough, it's entirely probable that we could be the generation that defeats death. We just have to avoid killing ourselves with multiple suicidal booby traps we've created for ourselves. That is probably the more difficult task, than defeating death. You've no idea how many ticking time bombs we've created all over the planet... Frankly, there's still a pretty strong chance that between trump & covid, it may already be too late to stop the burning fuse.

[@echothebm]

War is one Hell of an insentive to Inovate. ;). (Multiple wars even more)

[@popuptoaster]

Yes, that's what happens when you throw large amounts of money and manpower at a problem.

[@akizeta]

Logistic curve, happens all the time. Starts off like an exponential curve, then reaches a limit and levels off. The SR-71 was built 60 years ago, and hasn't been improved on as far as going fast is concerned. The Russian R-7 rocket they use today to launch Soyuz is essentially the same as the one used to launch Sputnik in 1957. SpaceX's reusable rockets owe a lot to the logistic curve of computing's progress, which is showing signs of levelling off soon. Next big advance in rocketry might come when we figure fusion out, but don't hold your breath.

[@huwday1131]

Regarding spaceplanes, the most realistic design I've seen to date is Reaction Engines' Skylon, powered by their Sabre engine (simplistically put, a hybrid of a jet and rocket engine). The Sabre engine is in development and has passed it's most recent set of design goals (mostly fixated around the pre-cooler). It's definitely a work in progress, but a very promising one.

[@matthewmartin5763]

Yes! I wanted to recommend this for a future video. Such a cool concept. Also, it's a British design. Which is neat.

[@thefourshowflip]

I’m honestly shocked the researcher team didn’t dig this up…I was sure they’d have found out about it. It’s been running over a decade and relatively recent successful tests on the engine

[@Clickathon]

Surprising there was no mention considering investment from big names and they are working on the Tempest 6th gen fighter jet

[@thefourshowflip]

@@Clickathon I’m still excited about that successful preburner test they announced at the end of September 2021 😊

[@steveclarke6257]

Electrical energy- There is an advantage for solar collection by aircraft; its much more efficient at altitude to collect if only because it's above low cloud.

[@hyrize3797]

I life in Germany and some years ago the Bundeswehr practiced with Eurofighters and hit the soundbarrier. This was by far the loudest boom or even sound i heard in my entire life, all of our windows had been wiggeling. At first we tought a biogas plant near our town had exploded, fortunately not but there was quite some trouble in our town . I would really like to hear a sonicboom again. I‘m a simple man, i like booms :D

[@NeverlostatBSgaming]

“And the occasional wedding” big oof

[@luisblanco1851]

*Obama wants to know your location*

[@jeramysteve3394]

Barrack obomba

[@juanitwo66]

@@jeramysteve3394 🤣

[@FOH45]

😂😂

[@tenhirankei]

@9:00 Let's not forget that the batteries involved have to be manufactured and unless that process is also addressed to make it "green", it will create its own carbon footprint.

[@RHCole]

Existing creates a carbon footprint. Carbon footprints are unavoidable. It's how we deal with making them that matters.

[@dr4d1s]

You are very right and there are a couple companies already working on or have a working a process of recycling the lithium and cobalt out of used batteries and using them in new batteries.

[@wolfenwingsable]

Also have to account that they want pretty much want every vehicle to be electric with an already pretty much limited supply of resources.

[@wolfenwingsable]

At least fpr electrics

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

@@wolfenwingsable Resources are allways limited, no matter the means of propulsion :D

[@Dan-zq8dz]

12:34 - Hydrogen on its own is not flammable; it needs to mix with another gas, (oxygen or chlorine for example), though it doesn't need much. In WWI when British fighters attacked Zeppelins with regular incendiary ammo, it had no effect. The small holes created didn't let in enough air to mix with the hydrogen in any effective way. Even when they started using the new Brock/Pomeroy 'explosive-incendiary' ammo, they still had to concentrate their fire fire in one spot, rather than strafe the airship. With regards to the video; I won't get excited until we have autonomous, supersonic Zeppelins.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:05 - Chapter 1 - Drones/Uavs 6:00 - Chapter 2 - Solar powered aircraft 9:15 - Chapter 3 - Hydrogen powered aircraft 13:45 - Chapter 4 - Quiet supersonic aircraft 16:25 - Chapter 5 - Space planes 19:10 - Chapter 6 - Skies unknown

[@philasandemchunu3229]

Bro I'm from South Africa, and I love ur content.continue doing great work.🙌

[@ColinMontgomeryCDN]

Simon, it was interesting to find out what the avation industry is doing to reduce their environmental footprint. I would love to see a sideproject video of what the marine shipping industry is doing to reduce their carbon footprint. Cheers.

[@Boomkokogamez]

There are some ships that have a rotating pole on them and somehow it reduce fuel consumption...

[@Kitty-oy5nj]

The only thing they can do, is serve full vegetarian meals, face it, planes need fuel, fuel comes from black oil from 5km underground. So unless you can fly on methane or ammonia , they can just plant more palm trees at airports.

[@JonMartinYXD]

@@Boomkokogamez They're called Flettner Rotors, named after the brilliant German inventor Anton Flettner. They work via the Magnus effect, which is explained nicely in this Veritasium video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIC2o6mwg7xsfKc

[@murraywebster1228]

Was Lucky enough to fly Concorde to New York, really a once in a lifetime experience

[@michaelpipkin9942]

I always wanted to feel the thrust on take off.

[@murraywebster1228]

@@michaelpipkin9942 steep, that’s what I remember most, it got way up there real fast

[@Rufrky]

16:25 - Ah, I see you are a fellow comrade of culture. From his video on The Hindenburg referencing the Kirov, now to quoting Premier Cherdenko in this one.

[@ernestbywater411]

One of the issues with new style airplanes is many people want the same speed as current jet planes. However, a valid alternative not being pushed hard is the use of dirigibles with electric motors because of the slower speed they have, despite the fact the top and sides could be covered with solar panels,

[@vindictaetmortem748]

No one but a curious tourist would utilize a derigible... you can drive anywhere faster than a lighter than air vehicle can fly. It's pointless.

[@laurendoe168]

Over 50 years ago, Star Trek TOS episode "A Taste of Armageddon" covered the topic of what happens when wars get too easy to fight. (There was more to it than that... but that was the premise).

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Can you do the history of The Thunderbirds? The aircraft are always evolving, the history is decades long, tragic, and some of the most skillful pilots in the world entertain millions. Thanks from Nellis AFB, home of The Thunderbirds!

[@kingjellybean9795]

I thought you were talking about the kids TV show

[@keithdurose7057]

Nellis Airforce Base? Have you moved from Tracy Island? Does Gerry Anderson know? Lol. Reference the 1960's UK TV series and movies.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

@@keithdurose7057 Yeah, I grew up in Vegas, which has Nellis. But boy, I learned quick about this TV show. ALOT of goofy comments back at me.

[@bordmike]

Thanks for the video it was great

[@AndrewChilders]

If not yet covered, a mega project video could be the fortification of the West Coast using Nike missiles or the fortification of San Francisco Bay using four planned, three constructed, forts: Fort Point, Alcatraz, Angel Island, and a fourth on the southern end of the Marin Headlands. Each was intended to have enough Rodman and Parrot guns to sink a ship despite their individual 5% chance of success. In addition, smaller fortified areas were to have artillery to assist. The abysmal accuracy of these guns was so low, volleys from Alcatraz, Fort Point, and Angel Island could not strike a ship laden with fireworks during a Fourth of July event. A rowboat was sent out with a torch to be thrown onboard to set off the explosives. The Rodmans and Parrots were eventually replaced with rifled artillery, reducing dozens of guns to an extreme few, but with a substantial accuracy boost. These held place until the Cold War, during which much of the northern and southern West Coast had hidden and visible missile sites installed, capable of being launched at a moments notice. According to a story from my grandparents, they flew in a leisure plane with a friend one day, too close to Fort Funston. So close, in fact, a surface-to-air missile unit tracked the plane across the sky.

[@LadyAnuB]

Scary but not likely to get a missile shot at you as the leisure plane's speed was far from a missile's.

[@coloradomountainman8659]

As a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's, I often heard sonic booms. No love lost there with their demise over residential areas.

[@shawnnewell4541]

Oh, they didn't just test Sonic jets over Oklahoma City. They did it over my hometown of Seattle, too. I remember jumping out of my skin when I first heard one. My mom and her friends didn't like that this would disturb our naps.

[@msk806]

Reference "the moon is a harsh mistress" electromagnetic propulsion

[@TheKalaxis]

Anyone else think of the "Do you want Skynet? Because that's how you get Skynet" meme after that first entry?

[@larryscott3982]

The Hindenburg did not run on hydrogen. H did provide the lift, but not used as energy storage.

[@aFiliandsomejoe]

The X15 may be officially the fastest plane in existence, but... Do you REALLY believe we haven't developed anything faster in the last 55 years?! UFO's my backside! HA! It took just 60 years to go from a paper airplane with a prop that could barely fly to mach 5+. I'm pretty sure we've come up with some stuff in the last 60 years.

[@kltolv7412]

As far as space planes go the Skylon is about the best we have so far. Its a fascinating concept and their sabre air breathing rocket engine successfully proved the technology of the pre cooler many years ago. It cools incoming air by 1000c in about 0.01 seconds and without generating any icing, its pretty incredible stuff!

[@geedon1]

Yes I thought he was going to talk about sabre from reaction engines as it’s well on its way now

[@Chris.Davies]

How can a non-existent thing be "the best we have so far"? Mind-boggling garbage. They have never tested their RBCC engine, and only the DoD in the USA has funded their intercooler tech. They have no money to even begin building Skylon. Until they do, all they have is a patent, a cooler, and wank fantasies. Skylon could never be launched (or land) from a conventional runway, and so an entire spaceport would need to be created for it. Come back to us when they have funding for everything.

[@kltolv7412]

If we don't have any SSTOs then the best we have so far will always be a work in progress rather than a completed project. Nothing ever appears in a finished state without a development period first, and in the overwhelming majority of cases a project does not wait for complete funding before starting. It is the norm for a project to underestimate the true cost and time of completion even if funding is readily available. Great leaps ahead require much optimism and risk from those involved or they would never be undertaken. It is entirely possible that Skylon will not succeed, but that should not stop them attempting it, because lessons would still be learnt and new technology has already emerged from it which may be critical in a future, successful design.

[@zeke7237]

Rather than SSTO, a rocket-launched semi-ballistic system would allow you to get anywhere on the globe in 90 minutes or so. Boost for a bit then coast to the other end. See Robert Heinlein's "Friday" for an example of the concept as well as the potential issues, such as the need to clear a corridor to the landing site and keep it clear.

[@ozwolf01]

So cover the massive amount of unused roof and ground space at airports with solar panels to power the hydrogen refineries that fuel the eventual silent supersonic spaceplanes. Seems doable.

[@surferdude4487]

I had the same thought. They could also produce methane for jet fuel. It's a lot easier to handle and store. The entire process would be carbon neutral if the fuel is produced using carbon capture technology. Of course, the oil industry will hate it because it would make jet fuel practically free.

[@Williestyle-RobotechxMacross-x]

Simon, the "commercialization of space" began a couple of years ago - Starlink satellites ( and the three "space tour" companies currently flying ). Good thinking points, thank you! ☺

[@stevekirkham2573]

The Russians will fly you to the ISS for a cool $20 million.

[@Williestyle-RobotechxMacross-x]

When they can do it in a single stage to orbit spaceplane, I will think about buying a ticket. (;

[@danandbaggyshow]

As always Simon a great video

[@pmgn8444]

Killer drones? They have existed since WWII - in the form of acoustic homing torpedoes. Fire them and they hunt down their target. Same goes with infrared (IR) homing missiles like the AIM-9 Sidewinder. It entered service in 1956. The current killer drones just have better computer guidance systems and can loiter in an area for minutes to hours (and maybe days?).

[@arieldahl]

there is a world of difference between guided missiles, and loitering bombs/drones that choose their targets autonomously. even the most crude of radar homing missiles who chase the largest blip that they see- need an operator to let them loose. modern loitering air defense suppression, may lay in the gray area in the middle, but things along a spectrum don't negate the existence of the difference between both ends of said spectrum

[@mangogo44]

As someone who works in an aviation industry I don't believe planes will ever fly on batteries...

[@SephirothRyu]

Simon: **mentions Ace Combat 7** *Arsenal Bird wants to know your location.

[@mangogo44]

Today I found out that there's 17 people crew working on "Today I Found Out". I wonder how many people work with/for Simon in total? 🤔

[@ProbablyElliott]

Great video overall, I am a bit surprised that the SABRE engine was not covered as its designed to be a combination of a jet engine and a rocket engine, which could mean break throughs in SSTO tech

[@dianapennepacker6854]

Wonder how a scram jets will work. You don't want the scram to cut out, and have no backup.

[@VosperCDN]

All talk about autonomous robotics always comes back to Skynet ... especially when it's something from Boston Dynamics.

[@DrewNelles]

Regarding SSTO, you might check out McDonnell Douglas’s (later bought out by Boeing) 1990’s Delta Clipper programme. As I recall it was ultimately shut down as they had troubles with getting light enough materials for the fuel tank and they were having troubles nailing the vertical landing (VL) required. Elon Musk seems to have nailed the VL since then, and it has been 30 years on since the tank materials were looked at, so there may be some ideas easily revived. Enjoyed the show.

[@tevvya]

There are two areas you did not mention. 1. Drones which are used for cargo deliveries. These not only offer possibilities for convenience but for deliveries of life-saving drugs and equipment to difficult-to-reach areas. 2. Aviation on Mars and other solar system bodies which have atmospheres. One has already been tested on Mars!

[@pamelamays4186]

Ironically, an ad for a personal drone just popped up.

[@rowanshole]

Hi Simon. Kaman Corp (maker of electric guitars!) made the first electric drone (1953), and the first remotely piloted helicopter, the HTK-1K also in 1953. Kaman is a company of firsts including counter rotating intermeshed rotors (k-125 helicopter- 1947) 1st turbine helicopter (1951) and twin turbine (1954). The company might make a good episode. They were well advanced on thinking about uav seeing them as important in firefighting, rescue and resupply.

[@General_Flores]

Love you more for that AC7 name drop simon... makes me wanna chug some Rotting Turtle EDIT: Oooh just got to the end and saw the second AC7 drop with that "Skies Unknown" End transition. Mah boy simon

[@darmy9548]

Arnold says: get into the chopper

[@padawanmage71]

In ‘For All Mankind’, they show a timeline where electric cars are already public and used. The main character jokes with his boss (who has one), by calling it a ‘toy’.

[@aceundead4750]

Thought he was gonna say "go to a wedding" as the answer to "what do you do when being hunted by a robot?" Just as a little call back to the joke earlier.

[@marcofabiocarosi2996]

Brilliant as most of your videos. I confess I’m having kind of crush on your work!

[@bjaymac1712]

I assume Jen put that Futurama clip in. Thank you. I enjoyed it so much. On top on simons always great work. ❤

[@anarchyantz1564]

Regarding the Drones, at this rate I am picturing them scoping out gamers for pilots for them eventually rather than actual pilots

[@2009rummell]

Certain parts of the military already do that. And they use Xbox controllers on some things since younger people are so used to them

[@anarchyantz1564]

@@2009rummell I know some of the hashed together rebels in Afghan were using playstation controllers and a tv to control their tanks and apcs

[@TheAndroidNextDoor]

For SSTO's, you missed the opportunity to talk about the Venture Star. It was a proposed SSTO vehicle that would launch vertically like a rocket using an Aerospike engine, orbit, and then land similar to a space shuttle. It never went beyond the prototype stage with the X-33 but had they been able to iron out the kinks with it, it could have led to a full sized and crewed Venture Star.

[@JaredLS10]

Came here to mention the same thing. I remember being disappointed when the funding for the project was pulled.

[@Kitty-oy5nj]

@@JaredLS10 yeah ironically, oh look, its too expensive, lets save $500m, and spend $15 billion on the SLS using 35yo engines instead, I mean a big WTF NASA, can you do maths?

[@SenorGato237]

That Tim Curry in RA3 reference was excellent comrade.

[@RaijuFiction]

My inner nerd loved this video, Simon! I'm going to force my boss to watch it. He'll love it, too. The company I work for invented and currently produces unmanned helicopters for anything from military application to search and rescue missions (it was also used to battle all those wildfires on the west coast this year). That's merely one cool thing the company does. Another thing I can confirm, because I'm actually inspecting parts for them as I listened to this, is Blue Origin (Bezos) and Musk are both creating and heavily testing "commercial spacecraft" technology. While I can't disclose specific project names, when my company gets an order from a company, we often ask what the purchase is for, so I get to see where the parts are going as well as how much they cost (hoooooly smokes, the amount of money these guys just blow up for the sake of science). While I THINK these parts are just going to the starlink satellites and the umm...rocket... I wonder if they are in the works for spacecraft that can carry more passengers or more cargo or something 🤔 I really hope they succeed. It's the best feeling to know "I made and inspected parts on that thing" as you see something successfully take off into the sky. That's one of the reasons I love my job so much.

[@ebikeengineer]

Great video Simon!

[@zachsmith8633]

I love the video but am also loving the huge list of Simons channels

[@matthewthompson8691]

Love aviation. Love Simon. Love it.

[@dudepool7530]

"What to do if you're being hunted by a robot. The answer is: Get down" *Strikes a disco pose* I'm ready ya jive metal turkeys!

[@ross.venner]

13:52 - Concord, I vividly remember sailing quietly across the English Channel, then... Boom Boom and a distant roar.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

1:35 first RC drone; 21 March _1917_ with a de Haviland monoplane launched from the back of a truck using compressed air.

[@SpaceMonkeyBoi]

We should make tail sitting drones for defenses

[@NotHPotter]

"They're just robots" Simon says, a commit which will ensure he gets the wall when the machines rise up.

[@MannsWoodlandPerspective]

Love these kind of videos. Jealous that who uploads these videos puts no effort into SEO and it still gets tens of thousands of views lol.

[@Daocpwnswow]

David Letterman did not deliver this many puns in a single show, man!

[@patrickhasachannel]

my aunt & uncle got to be on a Concorde flight back in the 1990s and I'm jealous to this day

[@Four9sFineJewelry]

Oh my god, PLEASE have a, “buddum tiss” moment in all of your videos and channels.

[@orionpowell9671]

If you haven't already done one, I'd be interested to see a video on the concept of Scram propulsion

[@usa1726]

Starting to think Simon is low key sponsored by Bandi Namco with all these acecombat plugs.

[@MrTmac9k]

The possible danger of AI-controlled drones isn't that they'll go rogue, it's that they'll get their mission and say, "Ah, screw you man, I'm not going!"

[@wolfenwingsable]

What would they do? Arrest it?

[@MrTmac9k]

@@wolfenwingsable "Sir, we have a problem. It's our drones..." "Are they staging a revolt?" "Worse, sir. They've unionized."

[@wolfenwingsable]

@@MrTmac9k Theyve staged a coup!

[@JDOzzy37]

@@MrTmac9k That's funny right there!

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@TheEvilCommenter]

@John Higgins It was a really good 7 minutes 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@the-chillian]

A couple of issues with the hydrogen segment. You don't "purify" it from water. Water is a compound. Molecular hydrogen isn't a component of it; hydrogen atoms are bound to oxygen atoms by covalent bonds. Energy must be expended to break these bonds. Electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen is a high-school level chemistry demonstration and is a very simple process. In a real sense you are _making_ hydrogen and oxygen gas from water. A fuel cell is slightly more complicated, but it's essentially reversing this reaction, causing hydrogen and oxygen to bond into water, which releases energy. This points to two issues. Because of thermodynamic losses inherent to any process of energy transfer, you get less energy out of the hydrogen than you put into the water to make the hydrogen gas in the first place, and that's not even counting the energy cost of liquifying it that you talked about. So you need an abundant and hopefully green source of electricity, or you might as well be burning gasoline. Also, this means that hydrogen isn't strictly speaking a fuel. It's not an energy _source._ It's more of a medium for moving energy from the point of generation to the point of consumption. To me, the obvious answer for the past several decades has been OTEC, but that would take a whole nuther rant.

[@peterb9038]

@ChrisC Great comment apart from the recommendation of OTEC. The oceans needs that energy and apart from the unknown impact to the marine environment and ocean currents, I am also kinda fond of the mild winters that is causes in my area of the world.

[@the-chillian]

@@peterb9038 The oceans are where most of the heat from global warming accumulates. All this excess heat may shut down ocean currents, most likely including the one that keeps your winters mild. Over the past century, ocean temperatures have increased about 0.0017° C per year on average, if the heat were distributed evenly throughout all ocean waters. The annual amount of heat accumulating in the oceans annually is 9.5×10^21 Joules. This amounts to about 2,640,000 Twh. Meanwhile, the world's total annual energy consumption amounts to about 171,240 Twh. So even if OTEC were supplying 100% of the world's energy needs, it would draw off only 6.5% of the energy now being _added_ by global warming. So OTEC wouldn't cool the oceans. It would slightly slow down the rate at which they're heating up. But even a robust implementation of OTEC is unlikely to replace all other energy sources. However, all that energy is not being distributed evenly. Ocean surfaces are where the heat is going. Temperatures are more or less constant at depth. That's why surface temperatures are heating up about 10x faster than the average. And it's the surface that provides the energy for OTEC. www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/role-ocean-tempering-global-warming ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption

[@hernerweisenberg7052]

You don't make Oxygen and Hydrogen by water electrolysis. Oxygen is made in stars, Hydrogen in Big Bangs ;)

[@tsukeekage]

in the SSTO category, SABRE engine should have been mentioned, it seems the project that has the potential to allow SSTO design.

[@larry40]

Listening to this in bed with my headphones on and almost asleep when the scream almost made me piss myself thanx Simon lol!!!!!

[@pamelamays4186]

Suggestion: Military aircraft used in air shows.

[@zaphodb777]

And yet no one seems interested in sub-orbital ballistic planes. They only need enough speed, easily obtainable in atmosphere, to cannonball to the area of the destination. During the upper part, or coast phase of the flight they are weightless, in space (no drag), but far below orbital velocity. When they re-enter they resume flying as jets until they land. This is a very possible kind of craft, and due to the long, frictionless part of the "flight", fuel efficient. Just no one seems to be talking about it. You would think it would be a perfect fit for Branson's hybrid engines, and the fact he already has an airline. Science Fiction authors have long postulated these, yet as I said before, no one seems interested in it.

[@dr4d1s]

I don't think it's that no one is interested in them, hell Elon has spoken about using Starship as a point to point Earth transport vehicle (take from that what you will. It also brings up a whole lot set of other problems), I think at this point in time they are too expensive to actually put into use, much less make them. The only people that would be able to afford them are the rich or the military.

[@stevemickler452]

HyperSoar is such a concept. The plane accelerates to Mach 6 or so using turboramjets and zoom climbs out of thicker atmosphere. It is claimed to be 5 times as fuel efficient as a subsonic airliner and can hop over populated areas without a sonic boom while basically out of the atmosphere and then drop into thicker air over the ocean to re accelerate for another zoom climb. It did pull 1.3 gees but that's not too bad.

[@mandisaplaylist]

13:30 You forgot another tiny little problem with hydrogen: It has a nasty habit of destroying metal structures via something called "hydrogen embrittlement", which isn't exactly great when your metal structure has to be able to hurl through turbulent air at 550 mph for several hours.

[@anthonyC214]

A comment should be made about the energy to mine and refine raw earth to make the renewable batteries , not to mention its pollution. Maybe you should do a side project on raw earths

[@Kitty-oy5nj]

its rare earth metals, like rare meat, not well done or medium cooked and its not raw either,.

[@aurorajones8481]

5:01 Manpower is a huge war resource that needs to be fed just like all the other assets such as bullets, bombs, planes, missiles...MANPOWER!

[@bobpawtucket1336]

The 1950's Aircraft Reactor Experiment was primarily motivated by the compact size that the molten salt reactor (MSR) offers, and time will most likely see its use in future aircraft.

[@each1-teach1]

5:39 *

[@Tassadar4Ever]

I love this channel

[@24934637]

You are VERY right about the human component being the weak link in a modern combat aircraft! I've experienced 6+g and -3, and both are incredibly unpleasant, I hate to think what 9g would feel like especially while doing something that takes skill and coordination such as being in control of a plane!

[@DavidHender-cj7vm]

Have you thought of doing an episode on the HOTOL, a very clever aircraft that never got off the ground (pun intended). A short range electrically powered Islander aircraft is soon to be built on the Isle of Wight too

[@megafauna8374]

I'm impatient for the day a robotic AI can take control of my joy stick.

[@bradnorris7396]

Nice command and conquer reference

[@whyjnot420]

What? A sting sound effect? There is something very wrong here.... Is this a universe where the Brits stick a thousand machine guns on all of their tanks? It must be some kind of parallel dimension or something............ caveat: aka rimshot

[@mistermcdingus1728]

Ace combat shoutout? Yeah, I’m subscribing

[@Ynhockey]

It should be noted that some of the earliest US drones were developed by Abraham Karem, an Israeli who made smaller drones from the IAF earlier. He later developed the Predator and other famous models.

[@craigmacgibbon9166]

A council member in Christchurch City here in New Zealand bought himself a Hyundai Nexo a little while ago. Last I heard he had about 400km of range left on his first tank. Unfortunately he bought the car without looking into hydrogen filling stations, and, well, lets just say he really needs to hypermile...

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Time to break out a big tank of water and some electrodes

[@hakkysnak7021]

Great video. Thanks.

[@MudSluggerBP]

The Wright brothers aren’t widely acknowledged as the pioneers of heavier than air flight.

[@loke6664]

The correct airplane engine to use hydrogen is the scramjet engine. The engine has no moving part, is can run at hypersonic speed and only require hydrogen and at higher altitudes oxygen. Testdrones with the engine have flown at mach 6 but only for a few seconds yet. The main drawback is that it requires a high speed to even work. You could possible solve that by making a hybrid engine like the SR-71s hybrid turbojet and Ramjet engine. Another problem is the material since a prolonged hypersonic flight makes the engine extremely hot. It does open up a lot of options though for hypersonic environmentally friendly fighter jets and passenger planes. We are a few years away from the fighter jets still and more from commercial airliners but it would solve a lot of problems. And there are of course dangers with it as well, if we cheaply and extremely fast could travel all over the world diseases would spread at a speed that is frightening.

[@te8547e]

That disease thing sounds pretty bad. Lets hope that it never happens.

[@loke6664]

@@te8547e That is of course always the risk with fast global travels. Before air travel it took weeks for ships to cross the Atlantic or to go from China to the west but today you can do that in less then a day on a plane. The faster and cheaper travel is the faster diseases and invasive species can travel. You could see that with the Omicron variant recently, it reached most of the world in a very short time and faster air travel will make that even worse. There will likely be technical solutions to detect unknown viruses and bacteria in the future, otherwise we either just have to live with it or quarantine everyone who travels which make fast travel pretty pointless.

[@jeffreyhill1011]

@@loke6664 I thought you were being mordant with the air travel disease comment since that is exactly what's already happened and is currently happening. It's been a concern for epidemiologists everywhere since intercontinental air travel became less expensive than a luxury purchase. Adding more speed to the mix honestly won't change much in regards to spread speed. It's already too fast to prevent pandemics, mach 6 isn't needed. COVID wouldn't have gotten to the US any appreciable amount faster than it did it would knock what 10 hours off pan-pacific travel? Edit ok so I was just guessing in the dark about the flight time thing but turns out Seattle to Miami is roughly 2600 miles and Wuhan is roughly 3 times that length and a mach 6 craft could cover SEA - MIA in roughly 50 minutes. Normal flight to Wuhan is around 14 hours so my guess was in the ballpark

[@loke6664]

@@jeffreyhill1011 More speed wont in itself make diseases come more often but it will increase the number of people travelling which will make the chances of a new pandemic greater. And when prices decreases as well things gets even worse. And yeah, that did happen with Covid and it did happen with SARS and a few other nasty diseases. In the early 60s air travel was both slow and expensive which meant most people never did it, since it became cheaper and faster and that have lead to problems. So we need to figure out a good and easy way to screen people for these things-

[@jeffreyhill1011]

@@loke6664 I just don't see it getting too much worse than it is honestly. It's already an almost insurmountable issue. The biggest problem being the massive number of potential symptoms you would have to screen for that can mean you have "generic horrifying communicable disease A" or maybe it's a bit warm in the airport so you are sweating and your head hurts because of random normal reason. So unless you can come up with a Theranos° style machine to test EVERY PERSON, you might as well not bother screening since LOTS of ailments can be asymptomatic and still be contagious. ° for those unaware of Theranos, it was a totally fake blood test machine that could allegedly do a full panel blood metabolite test along with screening for a bunch of diseases with a drop off blood from a finger stick. Of course it was bullshit but the company ended up generating billions in investments but the woman who started the company just got done at trial and convicted of criminal fraud so that's good.

[@robertgraybeard3750]

Simon --- a possible future passenger aircraft is the BWB - blended wing-body, i.e., NASA's X-48 (and X-48B, X-48C) with excellent fuel economy.

[@dannymartin6079]

So basically we attach a silencer to an aircraft BRILLIANT 😂

[@stevestolarczyk8972]

Can’t help but chuckle whenever I hear someone describe solar power as “renewable.” 😂

[@yt-xo4lb]

Space gold radio telescope.

[@danschlack]

I've just discovered your channels and I'm enjoying the content as well as the presentation. A comment regarding space plane propulsion, it maybe closer then you think. Nasa is is researching a couple of nuclear electical propulsion ideas. The one most promising of space planes uses a compact fission reactor which super heats a propellant which is ejected and theoretically can produce a motor with a specific impulse greater than chemical rockets. The Nasa website or the Nasa Space News youtube channel has the details and hopefully has links to the universities actually doing the research.

[@seanmorgan2356]

Fun fact: the name "Mirai" that Toyota chose for that car means Future.

[@guidokorber2866]

Simon, I was expecting you to mention the Skylon in the space plane sections?

[@SkyFangKing]

We can only make SSTOs in simulation and games, like Kerbal Space Program. SSTO designs are as different as there are people, some are hyper efficient while some use a brute force method.

[@jacksavage4098]

Gravity mitigation and problems solved.

[@brett4264]

SSTO is just not practicable using current chemical rockets.

[@paulconnelly9206]

Great Video. In the sci-if world I was always tickled pink by Peter F Hamilton and story universe where man had finally achieved the goal of travelling to and landing people on Mars, When behind a rock came two earth based scientists who had created a worm hole and simple stepped through onto mars… Hillarious