A plane made of plants

[CrystalMagic]

A plane made of plants

Have you heard about houses made of living plants? Have you heard about cars made of living plants? Is an airplane made of living plants possible? Do planes made of living plants exist? Is it possible to make an airplane from living plants? Don't ask why. It's for beauty. I am sure that it is possible to make an airship with live plants. I haven't heard about planes with live plants. I wonder why they don't use airships? I heard a funny joke that this is a conspiracy of aircraft builders. I don't believe in that.

[studiot]

4 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

A plane made of plants

Have you heard about houses made of living plants? Have you heard about cars made of living plants? Is an airplane made of living plants possible? Do planes made of living plants exist? Is it possible to make an airplane from living plants? Don't ask why. It's for beauty. I am sure that it is possible to make an airship with live plants. I haven't heard about planes with live plants. I wonder why they don't use airships? I heard a funny joke that this is a conspiracy of aircraft builders. I don't believe in that.

The most successful warplane of all time was made from wood.

I know that's dead, but still it's worth mentioning.

[MigL]

Most new planes have a high content of carbon fibre composites; carbon which, at one time, used to be living.

How would you water a plane made of living plants ???

[Genady]

The entire plane or some parts?

[studiot]

24 minutes ago, MigL said:

How would you water a plane made of living plants ???

Fly though a cloud ?

 

16 minutes ago, Genady said:

The entire plane or some parts?

No, the body was made of balsa wood. The twin engines were made of metal and I presume the fuel tanks and lines.

[CrystalMagic]

It is clear that there are flying planes made of dead wood known. 

I'm talking about a living tree. I think the biggest problem is weight and aerodynamics.

[Genady]

Are the living plants inside the plane count?

33 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

I think the biggest problem is weight and aerodynamics.

I don't think it is necessarily so. They can be small sturdy plants, like cactus, for example:

 

[dimreepr]

35 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

I'm talking about a living tree. I think the biggest problem is weight and aerodynamics.

I think the biggest problem is the roots, a root free tree could easily fly in a hurricane. 😉

[CrystalMagic]

3 hours ago, Genady said:

Are the living plants inside the plane count? 

No, because it will just be transporting plants.

[studiot]

A small spanner here.

A large part of a living tree is dead.

If the outer layers of the tree remain intact, the heartwood will not decay, even though it is dead and retired sapwood. Some believe heartwood must be the most important part of the tree due to the fact that it is called “heart”. However, the name just refers to the central position of the heartwood in the tree.

_{27 Sept 2019}

[Moontanman]

I can see a house being made up of living trees, I've seen trees grown into various shapes, some resembling houses and even partially functional, but moving objects? Maybe with a lot of genetic engineering. 

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by Moontanman

[CrystalMagic]

3 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

I can see a house being made up of living trees, I've seen trees grown into various shapes, some resembling houses and even partially functional, but moving objects? Maybe with a lot of genetic engineering. 

 

I don't say that it should be made of pure wood. It just has to have wooden parts.

[Peterkin]

18 hours ago, CrystalMagic said:

Have you heard about houses made of living plants?

Sure, that's easy. Both trees and houses are rooted. Cars and planes have to move, or else they're just houses.

You can make a plant-based car move if you construct it like a tumbleweed, covered in solar skin (possibly made of sunflower stem fibers) for motive power, but the passenger compartment would have to be equipped with a gyroscope, or else you'd have to hose it out every time you arrived at a destination. It may be speculated that genetic modification can achieve these combinations.

Your plane would have to be glider, built on the principle of a maple key or Pterocarpus rohrii. Seeds are alive, but they don't need watering. 

17 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

It just has to have wooden parts.

Didn't all airplanes used to have wooden frames? No challenge in that!

Edited January 29, 2023 by Peterkin

[studiot]

43 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

I can see a house being made up of living trees,

Yo, Moon that looks interesting. +1

 

Where I live we grow a lot of 'withies' . There are traditional willow slips before they get to tree status and are still bendy.

We are now somewhat famous for the Willow Cathedral, which is constructed by intertwining bendy willow in the manner you describe.

I must try to look out a picture.

[CrystalMagic]

50 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

Didn't all airplanes used to have wooden frames? No challenge in that!

Live plants. Not necessarily named from trees. You can use grass.

[Genady]

16 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

Live plants. Not necessarily named from trees. You can use grass.

Here it is done with cars - you can do the same with planes or parts of them: grass covered car - Bing images

[Peterkin]

18 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

You can use grass.

For what purpose? Seat covers?

[CrystalMagic]

4 minutes ago, Genady said:

Here it is done with cars - you can do the same with planes or parts of them: grass covered car - Bing images

Do you think it's easy? Planes are flying. An airplane needs weight and aerodynamics.

[Peterkin]

7 minutes ago, Genady said:

Here it is done with cars - you can do the same with planes or parts of them: grass covered car - Bing images

Fake grass, not living. Presumably, you could cover an ordinary car with some other vegetation but so what? It's still just an ordinary car. For airplanes, it would have to be on the inside - and still, so what? It's an ordinary plane with some green fuzz in the cabin.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Peterkin

[CrystalMagic]

Just now, Peterkin said:

Fake grass, not living.

Is there no way to use live grass for this?

[Peterkin]

1 minute ago, CrystalMagic said:

Is there no way to use live grass for this?

To cover a car? Probably. You'd have to affix ledges and ridges to the outer surface to hold the turf, and drive slo-oo-owly, so's not to dislodge it.

In a plane, you can plant a carpet, as well as seats.

But, you're still just cheating. It's not a  "A plane made of plants"; it's a plane decorated with redundant grass.

[Genady]

8 minutes ago, CrystalMagic said:

Do you think it's easy? Planes are flying. An airplane needs weight and aerodynamics.

I think it can be done with living plants with shallow roots. 

Planes can carry passengers and luggage. Adding some mats with plants on them would take away some of that capacity, but still doable.

These planes, just like these cars, wouldn't have an ideal aerodynamics, but you wouldn't do it to a fighter jet anyway.

[CrystalMagic]

55 minutes ago, Genady said:

I think it can be done with living plants with shallow roots. 

Planes can carry passengers and luggage. Adding some mats with plants on them would take away some of that capacity, but still doable.

These planes, just like these cars, wouldn't have an ideal aerodynamics, but you wouldn't do it to a fighter jet anyway.

My theory would be as follows: 1 Two-seat small aircraft. 2 This aircraft has very good aerodynamics. 3 The propeller plane flies at low speed. 4 Its balance and weight allows you to place plants.

[MigL]

What is the point of this mental exercise ?
Live plants cannot be used as structural components because they need delicate appendages, only  a tree trunk would provide the required strength.
At best, they would be a 'novelty' add-on, still needing the underlying structure, and adding nothing but weight.
This added weight, along with much poorer aerodynamics, would be catastrophic for fuel burn in any commercially viable enterprise, or, if the purpose is simply 'greening' aviation, counterproductive, as it requiresmuch more fuel ( fossil ) for the wquivalent ( where possible ) results.

You will note that many of the answers are ridiculing in nature ...

[CrystalMagic]

1 hour ago, MigL said:

What is the point of this mental exercise ?
Live plants cannot be used as structural components because they need delicate appendages, only  a tree trunk would provide the required strength.
At best, they would be a 'novelty' add-on, still needing the underlying structure, and adding nothing but weight.
This added weight, along with much poorer aerodynamics, would be catastrophic for fuel burn in any commercially viable enterprise, or, if the purpose is simply 'greening' aviation, counterproductive, as it requiresmuch more fuel ( fossil ) for the wquivalent ( where possible ) results.

You will note that many of the answers are ridiculing in nature ...

I don't consider this a serious project. This is fashion. Can you explain the fashion? Fashion is something unusual. Have you heard of such a project before? I haven't heard of such ideas.

I can tell you. I have a large number of ideas that you can laugh at or think about. It's up to you. I will accept any choice you make. You may ask what is my goal? I'm just developing my thinking. I could spend my free time doing nothing or doing something else. I'm doing some fun science. Nothing important, but I like it for various reasons. I think this does not allow me to degrade. Can you say that this is not the case? But I decided to choose such a let. I'll accept any answer you give, but that doesn't mean I'll agree with it. I'm sorry if you think this is stupid and think that I am someone who just wants to make people laugh. It's not because I don't have enough attention. The point is rather that I don't want to be the one who plunges into a routine. Are you familiar with this opinion?

Edited January 29, 2023 by CrystalMagic