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  #31  
Old 11-28-2010, 07:04 AM
Tanker Tanker is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 16
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As you can guess from my name, I am no scientist, but have a few thoughts:
1) Gasoline infrastructure developed in about 20 years to meet the demand of the times. It has continued to develop as the demands changed. Some of us worked as tank fillers (sorry, driveway salesmen) as recently as the late '70s;
2) Government intervention has slowed the progress of every innovation in history, with the possible exception of the internet. It could be that exotic propulsion will be the latest exception, but I doubt it. No new idea has taken off without private investment and a skeptical public changing over time;
3) Unintended/unforeseen consequences are never part of the math. Try as we might, we never get them all right. Are solar panels, electric cars, wind power, ethanol, or nuclear propulsion developing enough to be the next big thing? Who knows. We have, however, been working on ALL OF THEM for at least 100 years and none of them have taken off. Time and again, they have promised to fix what ails us. With few exceptions, we still fill up at gas stations;
4) Finally, where's my Flying Car? Popular Science and Popular Mechanics have been promising me one for 50 years. All it needed to be was small, fast, easily converted to flight, the same price as a normal small airplane/sports car, and legal. I can't wait any longer; an RV7 will have to suffice. Now I will need a hangar, a runway, pilot certificates, etc. This is making me angrier than I can articulate. Where's my Flying Car? ( Humorous ending, in case you couldn't tell. I'll send my home address by email to anyone who wants to come over and slap me for heresy, poor writing, bad jokes, or illogic.)
Rick Vinas
San Antonio
RV7/A Empennage nearly done
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Rick Vinas
RV7A Emp started 12/09
Wing Kit Arrived!07/31/13
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  #32  
Old 11-28-2010, 10:03 PM
LarryT LarryT is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Battle Ground, WA
Posts: 426
Default Infrastructure

Quote:
Originally Posted by SHIPCHIEF View Post
When the scheduled 14,000 year warming trend ends (it's near enough, see Burt Rutan's presentation) and the falacy of global warming is abandoned, Power systems will again be judged on merit, not politics and crony capitalism.
Maybe sooner if the global economy continues to collapse. Austerity programs are already spreading across Europe, and every debter nation will have to face the fact that all those laws to promote fairness and reelect incumbants have bogged down the economy. Subsidies for 'green jobs' will dry up. Good ideas can make it on merit alone.
Electric cars make sense if the trips are short. Communites will adapt, city parking meters will be recharge stands. Just swipe your debit card.
Personal parking spaces at work will become even more cherished for the recharge stand. This is how limited battery capacity is mitigated.
Batteries will slide out like cassettes, so flight lessons can continue all day.
Gasoline and synthetic equivalents will still be available. Cars and trucks will have computers that tune the engine for whatever fuel. Sort of diesels with spark plugs that are also combustion sensors. Folks in the exburbs and countryside might not find electric cars useful.
Nothing will be like it was, yet it will still be the same. You can still fly a Jenny, drive your cherished Pickup and park it next to your new fangled Electrik plane.
The next issue is infrastructure. I never noticed anyone other than this forum mention it. It took a century to develop our liquid hydrocarbon delivery system to what it is now. Electric grid improvements seem the most possible on the established system if new power plants are permitted & built. Methane Hydrates and Natural gas...we have lots of it.
It is my understanding that it wasn't inventing the light bulb that made Edison wealthy. It was developing the the power grid to deliver the electricity to light the bulbs. General Electric was originally the Edison General Electric Company. So you are correct that infrastructure is the biggest issue to solve. It will be natural for people involved in the current infrastructure, e.g., gasoline companies with huge tanker truck fleets, to resist change. Who can blame them? No one likes to lose his job. Transition to new technology is harder than Edison developing the power grid. He had no vested interests to compete with.

LarryT
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  #33  
Old 11-28-2010, 10:25 PM
vgb vgb is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: northern Cal
Posts: 111
Default grass for gas [ lawn grass that is]

Does anybody know what happened to the grass for gas alternate fuel
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