http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/13/travel/airbus-fly-your-ideas-future-of-flight/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

 

Hmm... Some sort of chip.. I wanna make one REVEAL THE WAY OF MAKING IT CNN!

 

Tan Kai Jun, the team leader, envisions cabin seats upholstered with a thermoelectric fabric that can convert a person's energy into 100 nanowatts of voltage. Alas, that amounts to about one-millionth of what your iPhone needs to stay on standby. Still, Jun maintains that it does ultimately add up.

"It's a small amount, but imagine this collected from 550 seats throughout 10 hours of flight. A plane has a lifespan of a few hundred flights -- over time that's a big reduction," he says.

 

 

Ignoring the "nanoWatts of Voltage" gaffe, for a 10 hour flight, this is a microWatt hour. 1000 flights gets you to a milliWatt hour. 1000 passengers gets you to a Watt hour. Let's assume the cost of electricity on a plane is ~10x more than commercial US electricity, because of the inefficiency, or a dollar per kW hour. This system will save, at most, a tenth of a penny. If the components and installation are free.

Ignoring the "nanoWatts of Voltage" gaffe, for a 10 hour flight, this is a microWatt hour. 1000 flights gets you to a milliWatt hour. 1000 passengers gets you to a Watt hour. Let's assume the cost of electricity on a plane is ~10x more than commercial US electricity, because of the inefficiency, or a dollar per kW hour. This system will save, at most, a tenth of a penny. If the components and installation are free.

Hmm...how much would it cost to get the weight of the components to flying altitude, plus lift related drag, 1000 times?

Hmm...how much would it cost to get the weight of the components to flying altitude, plus lift related drag, 1000 times?

 

Right. I forgot that they have to be massless, too.

Mhm. Sounds interesting, but as swansot said, it'll cost millions if not billions and it will use up a lot of electricity, the saving of electricity will be almost unnoticable.

Tan Kai Jun, the team leader, envisions cabin seats upholstered with a thermoelectric fabric that can convert a person's energy into 100 nanowatts of voltage. Alas, that amounts to about one-millionth of what your iPhone needs to stay on standby. Still, Jun maintains that it does ultimately add up.

 

"It's a small amount, but imagine this collected from 550 seats throughout 10 hours of flight. A plane has a lifespan of a few hundred flights -- over time that's a big reduction," he says.

 

As a chemical engineer, with experience looking at energy balances of systems, it is my professional opinion that this guy needs a slap in the face. It is not worth any more of my time.

As a chemical engineer, with experience looking at energy balances of systems, it is my professional opinion that this guy needs a slap in the face. It is not worth any more of my time.

 

Several times I have run across similarly un-useful suggestions that don't pass even a cursory check, and invariably they are "design" projects that are all art and no science.