The Safety Features of BtBC

My approach to engineering is simple: It is better to design a system that avoids the emergency situation in the first place than a system that tries to handle it after it occurs. In traditional aviation, safety is additive—adding complex sensors, fire suppression, and heavy redundancies to manage a failure. Blade the Ballistic Cruiser (BtBC) has a subtractive safety system. By removing the components that cause the most common emergencies, such as turbofan engines, fuel-filled wings, and fragile landing gear, I prevent the problem so that I don’t need to solve it afterward. I replace complexity with physics.

Even though using cryogenic fuel and oxidizer on board looks like a big safety problem, they pose no risk to the passengers. Moreover, they enhance the emergency capabilities of the plane. The phase change of these liquids creates an immense volume change. This is utilized in case of emergency to keep the aircraft airborne. The excess pressure inside the oxygen tank is released from the back of the plane to generate additional horizontal thrust. In case of engine failure, it would give the pilot additional time to land the plane safely. Additionally, the methane would be released downward close to landing to reduce the touchdown impact. Lighter-than-air methane would create a cushion effect under the plane and allow for a soft touchdown. Because methane is lighter than air, it would evaporate and leave no residue behind. More importantly, the tanks would not explode uncontrollably. They would have structural fuses on the bottom of the tank facing away from the passengers. If the pressure relief valves are overwhelmed, cryogenic liquid and debris are vectored downward into the atmosphere, while the passenger cabin remains a protected, uncompromised zone.

The lack of turbofan engines behind the wings allows for a much safer landing. The most dangerous potential fire source of a plane is removed in my design. High-speed rotating parts in traditional engines can create shrapnel that would pierce the cabin and cause fatalities. Cleaning the wing negates such problems.

The clean fuselage, wings, and belly of the plane, coupled with the empty fuel tanks, would provide better buoyancy for water ditching than a traditional aircraft. The fuel tanks also protect the cabin from the impact of landing by acting as a crumple zone.

The most important feature of BtBC is its simplicity and its clean fuselage. The unified engines are arranged with a considerable amount of redundancy. If the horizontal thrust engines fail, the independent VTOL engines would still function and land the plane vertically. More importantly, they are simple and operate with clean fuels: LNG and LOX. There would be no impurities such as those seen in air-breathing engines. The probability of failure is significantly lower than that of complex turbofans. Additionally, the thrust of the engine is established by the fuel and oxidizer on board. Therefore, poor air quality (lack of oxygen) poses no problem to flight safety; it only reduces the flight economy.

Finally, turbofans are susceptible to failure from particles in the air, especially birds. The only opening of the BtBC is the duct engine area. It is just a hollow duct with high-temperature gases inside. A bird entering from the opening of the duct would come out as "fried chicken" from the end. The non-stick coating inside the duct, which prevents the walls from melting, also ensures that organic material does not stick to the walls of the duct.