Dreamliner

05.15.08
How It Works

How It Works: The Dreamliner's Super-Efficient Powerplant

The GEnx engine, the powerplant of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, burns 15 percent less fuel than conventional jet engines by using fewer components and lighter composite parts. Flying in 2009, the engine will also be quieter and more durable
By Eric Adams Posted 03.13.2008 at 4:34 pm 2 Comments

In a “high-bypass” turbofan engine like the GEnx, 90 percent of the thrust comes from spinning fan blades in front that draw in massive quantities of air and force it out in a ring around the engine’s center, or core. The GEnx’s primary innovation is in its fan blades, which have been reshaped to move air more efficiently with fewer blades and are made of carbon fiber to save weight.

[ Read Full Story ]
READ MORE ABOUT > , , , , , , , ,

Fly the Eco-Friendly Skies

Environmentalists and everyday air travelers alike are growing increasingly aware of the airline industry's greenhouse-gas problem. As demands for greener air travel grow, will technology come to the rescue of the jumbo jet?
By Dennis Gaffney Posted 02.04.2008 at 6:13 pm 3 Comments

Last summer, more than 1,000 environmentalists in the U.K. staged a weeklong protest in a "Climate Camp" at Heathrow Airport, where about 70 people were arrested. Their immediate purpose was to block a planned expansion of Heathrow, but the protests highlighted a growing complaint in Europe—that the ride to global-warming catastrophe is being fueled not only by coal-fired power plants and SUVs, but also by the ever-rising number of commercial jets. Now governments are starting to listen.

[ Read Full Story ]
READ MORE ABOUT > , , , , , , ,

PPX: The PopSci Predictions Exchange

RSS Link

New IPO

Hot Stocks

  • Life on Mars

    Will the Phoenix lander find verifiable signs of life on the surface of Mars by January 1, 2009?

  • Fewer Honeybee Colonies Die Off in 2008

    Will fewer honeybee colonies die off in 2008 than in 2007, showing the bee crisis to be a natural phase and not a portent of a larger, longer problem?

Ready to bet on the future? Start here!

Subscribe for 2 free issues!

may2008_cover.jpg