Fuel saving on taxi... feasible?
Croydon's trams apparently use a system whereby they can store the energy absorbed by the brakes during deceleration and use this to assist in them getting underway again. This results in less power being used from the (unsightly!) overhead supply.
Could this be developed for use in aircraft for a fuelless (excluding APU) taxi out/in or would the extra weight of the gear just burn off all that 'saved' fuel in the cruise?
While on the subject of saving money, how about using the system mentioned above to spin the wheels up before touchdown and save on tire wear? Not an engineer or anything, just have strange ideas sometimes!
Got a call back from Dragon's Den about another idea but when they realised it was just an idea they weren't interested!