[AR] Re: Orions and PDEs (was Re: More MAX delays.)
- From: Norman Yarvin <yarvin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2020 15:08:30 -0500
On Thu, Jan 30, 2020 at 01:53:17PM -0500, I wrote:
Thinking about it, I can see the advantage for jet engines, which
seems to be the usual context for discussions of pulse detonation
engines. If you use combustion to compress the fuel-air mix from,
say, 6 bar to 30 bar, you're saving all the shaft horsepower that
would otherwise go into that compression, and you can use that
horsepower to drive the fan in your turbofan setup -- the usual 'jet
engine' these days being a turbofan. That's indeed a clear win, if
you can pull it off.
Piston engines, by the way, already do this, so it's not like it's
some unobtainable miracle (or requires detonations). But airlines
were quite happy to get rid of their piston engines, since they had
turned into complicated turbocompounded beasts which were maintenance
nightmares. So if any revival were contemplated, care would have to
be taken not to fall into the same trap.
Other related posts:
