Fwd: Re: starship-design: Vapor Trail Fuel

[Curtis Manges <clmanges@yahoo.com>]

> There is one theoretical transportation system which can outperform
> the
> airship in terms of energy efficiency: the evacuated maglev train
> tunnel.

You've got it -- see below . . .


> Until that be built, the airship will remain the most energy
> efficient
> transportation system ever devised by man. 

I disagree. In some past research on bicycles, of all things, I
encountered some information on air resistance and rolling resistance
(the combination of which are the limiting factors of bicycle speed).
The upshot of which was that a rail system has the lowest rolling
resistance of any system devised, hence it is the most efficient in
use. On level ground, a single engine can pull hundreds of cars, each
carrying dozens of tons. Get that wind drag out of the way and you've
really got a mover.
Back to the flight aspect, though, two things about Johnnie's
externally-fuelled booster:
(1) can your proposed aerostat really carry enough fuel for the job,
considering that most of it will be lost? and 
(2) is said aerostat expendable? That fuel-hungry booster might just
want to fly right up its ass . . .

I still like the magnetic rail launcher, and I don't see anything in
the way of building it, other than money and politics (the same main
obstacles to all the other ideas presented here).

Keep looking up,

Curtis

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