Comments on: EcoMeme: The Future of Flight, Fuel Efficient?

By: Lora

Lora — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:35:53 +0000

@Brant — GREAT questions. I reached out to Mr. Parrish from Aurora today to get some answers. Here’s what he wrote me via e-mail:

“The MIT/Aurora concept does not require any special infrastructure — in fact, it is designed to operate from even shorter runways than the equivalent (in terms of passenger count) conventional aircraft. This would make the aircraft accessible to many more airports than the current small set of congested “hub” airports.

Sorry, can’t help on the jetpack question. Still waiting for mine, also.”

By: Brant

Brant — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:54:57 +0000

The Aurora passenger concept shown is certainly an interesting one. Seems like these kinds of innovations are often stymied by infrastructural limitations. I wonder, then, whether it is designed to be operable in existing airports or whether it would require retrofitting of facilities to accommodate its particularities? (E.g. does it require a longer runway? Special gates & jetways?) Very interesting, though.

Also, when do I get my jetpack?!

By: Susannah

Susannah — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:06:16 +0000

This is a good theme and well said, Lora. What you’ve presented shows that we can have both progress and responsibility. It takes more work and efficiency to fly greener, but it’s well worth the smaller impact.