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Comment by patrickk | Hacker News Reader

Another stupid idea: use aircraft catapults[1] to reduce the onboard energy requirements. Takeoff seems to be the most energy demanding stage of the flight.

Obviously a drawback is that existing airfields' or airports' runways would have to be retrofitted, but if the fuel and maintenance savings were enough, it might make sense.

[1] used on aircraft carriers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_catapult

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A cable winch like they use with sailplanes would work really well for this.

There's research going on about that [1], in fact going a step farther by removing the entire undercarriage of the plane. It's safer too -- partially extended landing gear is more dangerous than belly landing because struts and hydraulic systems are a lot more fragile than solid ribs of metal.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_carriage

Huh...that's actually a great idea. I never thought about it for commercial liners.

I'm sure Boeing or Airbus could create prototype liners and only have a few airports with catapults built into the airstrips. You could save a considerable amount of energy if it's designed correctly. Plus airplane tires have to be replaced very frequently. It could reduce takeoff wear as well.

You just need to carry energy into the airplane, with coils for example. No need for a catapult.

The catapult is a proven technology for aircraft though, with decades of development.

Or with a reusable launcher. Somebody get Elon on the line.

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