Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[zapkitty]

Brian H wrote:

A wild-ass guess says that we’re looking at 400 MW or more in excess of primary power needs to enable a switch to jet-style propulsion.

that’s just 80 anodes, tessellating a spherical shell, cooled by 160 kg/s of helium in a closed cycle. hardly any challenge, at all 🙂
Yeah — 160 tons of FF, a ton or 10 of helium, and maybe 160 lbs. of fuel? No problemo! :cheese:

All we need to do is install all that gear into a clone of the Spruce Goose!

… more seriously…

… while FF, as it is currently described, is not power-dense enough to directly displace jet engines FF deployment can still make a huge impact in the world of aviation by directly slotting into the spaces currently occupied by subsonic carriers. FF can do this by using transports that have low maintenance and unlimited range…

…. which is a large advantage in a huge market.

One example: A Taiwanese chip fab receives an emergency order from the ITER installation for two dozen replacement chips for a blown heater control array.

ITER has to have the new chips as soon as possible or the reactor budget will implode and take the facility administrators with it.

An FF transport would not even be as fast as a 747… mach 0.72 as opposed to mach 0.85… but the transport gets the chips to ITER before any other commercial carrier could because it does not stop. Does not refuel. Does not have to transfer the package to another aircraft.

… that sort of tortoise and the hare stuff…