Timeline for Would lack of petroleum oil help make planes impossible, or uncompetitive to airships?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S Dec 16, 2021 at 23:16 | history | bounty ended | Darth Biomech | ||
| S Dec 16, 2021 at 23:16 | history | notice removed | Darth Biomech | ||
| Dec 12, 2021 at 21:18 | comment | added | John | @DarthBiomech then just say no one has invented it yet, it took two hundred years after the invention of steam engines to get planes, if flat land is hard to come by that will make it even harder. | |
| Dec 12, 2021 at 13:50 | comment | added | Darth Biomech | @John Because steampunk should have zeppelins, not airplanes, and I need there to be a valid reason for why airplanes were a dead-end in this verse for that technological level. | |
| Dec 12, 2021 at 2:31 | comment | added | John | @DarthBiomech then why not make hydrogen powered aircraft? | |
| Dec 11, 2021 at 23:17 | comment | added | Darth Biomech | @John due to the peculiarity of the setting, getting hydrogen is not that hard. | |
| Dec 11, 2021 at 4:55 | comment | added | John | If there is no oil where are they getting their lifting gas from? If there is no fuel how are they building any technology? | |
| Dec 11, 2021 at 0:22 | answer | added | Nepene Nep | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 9, 2021 at 20:01 | answer | added | Goodies | timeline score: 1 | |
| S Dec 9, 2021 at 13:27 | history | bounty started | Darth Biomech | ||
| S Dec 9, 2021 at 13:27 | history | notice added | Darth Biomech | Draw attention | |
| Dec 7, 2020 at 13:09 | comment | added | Slarty | Probably the key driving factor would be how much precious level ground is used up operating planes v airships. A lot of specialist fabric is required in an airship which ultimately has to be "grown". | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 14:54 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | @OK, so you didn't make an effort at all, and you're just blurting out the first facts you came to. You haven't optimized either mode for fuel economy, or even applying the most basic facts about aerodynamic drag. "engines don't keep planes aloft", I had to know it would only go downhill from there... | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 14:49 | comment | added | AlexP | @Harper-ReinstateMonica: An Airbus A340 burns about 50 tonnes of fuel flying 260 passengers from Berlin to New York. The Hindenburg burned 55 tonnes of fuel for the same flight, carrying 70 passengers. The A340 consumes four times less fuel per passenger, and flies about seven times faster. Progress is a good thing. | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 14:21 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | @AlexP Have you actually done a real number-crunch on this, or are you extrapolating it from your beliefs that the engines are not involved in the wings holding up the airplane, and that cross-section is the deciding factor in air resistance? | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 14:16 | answer | added | user79911 | timeline score: 8 | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 14:10 | comment | added | Darth Biomech | On short distances probably even conventional steam-powered funiculars, but I don't think this is viable for long stretches of cliff. Imagine having to carve hundreds of kilometers of rock to form a base for a rail. Sounds way easier to just fly over in an airship even if they can't carry as much cargo on them. | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 13:18 | comment | added | DWKraus | I think, if I understand, you are going to have a sort-of vertical train system moved by balloon. Most movement would be up/down (possibly on some sort of track) and sideways motion would be mostly to maneuver. Seriously not understanding how a giant cliff can have a civilization anything like normal. What about air pressure? | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 12:41 | comment | added | distracteded | Although the engines pushing/pulling the airplane through the air are what causes lift to affect the wings, bringing the plane into the air, so the engine contributes greatly to the plane staying aloft. Apologies for the correction - it's pretty critical to aerodynamics and Bernoulli's principal - lift happens when there is airflow passing over and under the wing; that is achieved by speed, and therefore the engine. A glider outsources it's engine, it still needs the same thing. An elastic band would eliminate the "engine" but it's still an external supply of speed to create lift. | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 12:35 | answer | added | distracteded | timeline score: 5 | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 12:27 | comment | added | AlexP | Airships consume more fuel that airplanes. (The engines of the airplane are not there to keep it aloft; that's what the wings are for. The engines are there to push the airplane through the air; airships have vaaaaaastly larger cross sections than airplanes.) | |
| Oct 26, 2020 at 12:17 | history | asked | Darth Biomech | CC BY-SA 4.0 |