"CHANGE username to westes" wrote in
message ...
Since taking up aviation as a hobby, I have wondered why gasoline, and
similar oil-derived liquid fuels, have become the defacto standard for all
forms of general aviation and commercial and military aircraft.
Comparing
Jet fuel to something like natural gas, Jet fuel is four times as
expensive.
Liquid fuels are extremely heavy, and certainly airplanes do not need
extra
weight.

This leads me to wonder why haven't engines been commercialized that can
burn gas-based fuels? Is the only reason safety, because of the
explosive nature of gas fuels like natural gas or hydrogen?

First thing to get clear

Gasoline is NOT repeat NOT favored for military aircraft

Now to address gas based fuels

Gas is by its nature volatile and a severe fire hazard, not just
for the aircraft but for the ground base/carrier. With a liquid fuel
you first have to gasify it to make it burn, thats what the wick is
for on an oil lamp or the carburettor on a car engine, with gas based fuels
you are already there

There are other problems though.

1) Gas , even when liquified, takes up more volume for the same
calorific value

2) The heavy containers needed for compressed or liquified gas
are a severe weight penalty


Isn't there some way you could use two separate gases, which in their
separate state are inert, but combined together under high pressure,
become
explosive? Such a combination would not ignite if the airplane crashed
(you could separate the gases into separate containers on each side of the
airplane, at the wingtips), but in controlled injection into a high
pressure
compartment could be made explosive in a controlled way, in a very limited
space.


There's none that I know of and if there were you just introduced
another level of complexity and extra weight

Think how much fuel is being wasted each day on airplanes, simply to
support
the extra weight required to carry the fuel itself. Think how dangerous
airplanes are during relatively survivable impacts to the ground,
primarily
because they are gasoline bombs. I would be very interested to read
about
efforts to develop gas based engines for general aviation or commercial
aircraft. I would appreciate any pointers to web sites or books.


Modern aircraft dont use gasoline as fuel, they use relatively
inert grades of Kerosene stable enough that its hard to
light with a match unless you provide a wick or vaporise
the stuff.. Somehow I doubt any flammable gas would be safer.

I KNOW both LPG nor Hydrogen are more dangerous.

Keith