No. of Recommendations: 1
I too am completely ignorant about this plane. Jim's protests seem (and are) perfectly logical, but let's add an additional variable. Let's assume that the plane needs substantially more "horsepower" during take-off and landing than during cruising. That would mean that, in a regular plane, the engines would have to be large enough for this periodic event. If a separate electrical propulsion system could supplement the main engines during take-off and landing, then the main engines could be much smaller and, in a perfect world, much more efficient. While, in theory, the same amount of energy is used wither way, in practice, they may be significantly different.
Of course, I could be spectacularly wrong.
Jeff
