The Anonymous Widower

It’s All in the Figures

In The Times today, there is an article, saying that Boeing’s new airliner, the 737 Max, has acquired its first customer. It has been launched the airliner perhaps earlier than it wanted, as a response to the sales success of the new Airbus A320neo, which offers a 15 percent fuel saving over the A320.

The article states that Boeing are looking for 30% fuel savings by the mid-2020s.

If car and truck makers could achieve figures like this, it might help with global warming.

December 14, 2011 - Posted by | Transport/Travel | , ,

2 Comments »

  1. Car fuel consumption has dropped dramatically over the years with smaller new cars achieving over 70mpg. My E320CDI Mercedes, despite being heavy and fully loaded with heavy gadgets returns 40mpg. With an upper limit of 37% efficiency, when run at constant power and rotational speed, and a typical return of 18 to 20%, there are limits of what can be achieved without looking at other solutions. The political pressure to move to electric cars has serious drawbacks using current (excuse the pun) technologies. Where is the electricity supply capacity going to come from? Electricity supply is not very green with significant losses in transmission. The batteries are a huge cost in both financial and ecological terms. The batteries will use vast quantities of poisonous chemicals that we must import from politically unstable areas of the world. Rare Earths used in the magnets for the motors have similar issues. One very quick way of saving energy would be to turn off lights in empty buildings at night, and remove street lights from motorways and major roads (these are mainly in the south around London).

    Comment by John Wright | December 14, 2011 | Reply

  2. The best way to cut fuel costs is to get a car more suited to your everyday needs, that is as light as possible. My Elan could easily do well over 40 mpg on a long journey driven fairly fast. But then it was plastic. Have you ever seen a Lotus Elise that suffered a 50 mph head on. The aluminium bathtub protected the occupants and they just bolted a new front on.

    Perhaps all vehicles should be taxed by weight. The trouble is that would penalise electric cars, which is politically incorrect. If you want to look at how being drasconian on weight creates a good design, look at the Douglas Skyhawk. Gordon Murray has it right.

    https://anonw.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/the-car-of-the-future/

    Comment by AnonW | December 14, 2011 | Reply


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