Energy conservation is certainly a hot button issue these days, with an array of proposed solutions to our energy concerns on the table. One such solution, the Airborne Metro Concept, aims to re-imagine and reconstruct the way mass airline travel operates, both in form and in function.
The Airborne Metro would allow passenger planes to dock with larger cruiser aircraft that would loop endlessly through the sky above major airports, carrying vast numbers of passengers – in the region of 3,000 – to their destinations. In order to power these large sky-cruisers, low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology could potentially be utilized.
Once the larger craft would approach its earthbound destination, the smaller crafts would descend and land at the conventional airports below.
Of course, concerns regarding disaster-mitigation and the potential risk factors inherent with using nuclear technology are still present – although some thought has gone into addressing these concerns, such as implementing a chemical propulsion back-up system, as well as making the permanently-aloft cruisers unmanned to eliminate the threat of long-term radiation exposure.
And while a concept like the Airborne Metro is still some ways off due to the current constrains of modern technology, it is nonetheless an interesting and innovative idea worth exploring.
