On the Record With
Linden S. Blue, Chairman, Spectrum
Aeronautical LLC
Glimpse ahead to 2025 and you'll see humankind, especially
the United States, breaking most of its addiction to fossil fuels as the
primary source for energy, if you share Linden S. Blue's vision for the future.
The chairman of Encinitas, Calif.-based Spectrum Aeronautical LLC, and current
vice chairman of San Diego-based General Atomics, sees the U.S. building 2,000
new-technology 300-megawatt nuclear power plants that will supply most of the
nation's electrical power needs. Hydrogen will power most surface vehicles, and
hydrocarbon fuels will be reserved for aircraft, among other special mobility
uses.
"The U.S. consumes far more carbon-based fuel than it
should. This is a civilization-threatening problem. We use one-third of our oil
to generate electricity. That's just folly. This is no time for parochial self
interests. We can't afford the foolishness of denying nuclear power as a
superior technology," Blue says.
He also foresees using electricity from those power stations
during off-peak periods at night to generate hydrogen by electrolysis that will
fuel most automobiles and light trucks. Using electrical power from nuclear
plants to make hydrogen makes it "a realistic fuel source" for ground vehicles,
he says. Petroleum-based fuels will be reserved for airplanes and other
mobility uses. Tax incentives and penalties may be needed to prod this
transformation.
"We may need a carbon tax to get people out of those
humungous SUVs. We could trade the carbon tax for other taxes," Blue suggests.
"Random access" will continue to be essential to business,
according to Blue. He defines random access to include Internet use,
automobiles and most especially business aircraft. "Business jets are not toys,
not luxuries. They're critical elements of making business productive. The
world needs access to 6,000 general aviation airports. This reduces congestion
and makes random access affordable.
"Harry Combs knew the virtues of flying higher for better
fuel economy and to get above the weather," Blue says, reflecting on his years
in the mid-1970s at Gates-Learjet. "Harry gave me the license to do whatever I
wanted, as long as the aircraft flew faster, higher and farther. Then, along
came the Arab oil embargo. And we already were up against the sound barrier."
That's when Blue became aware that improving fuel-efficiency would become a key
enabling technology of the future. It's what drove him to Learfan. "I was
intrigued by composite construction. Besides, rivet guns are noisy and there's
a huge amount of manual labor involved with building aluminum airplanes. When
Learfan came along, I was a sitting duck."
Learfan, though, was a "black aluminum" structure, one that
used carbon fiber stressed skins, hoop frames and longerons held together by
mechanical fasteners. "I learned that there are lots of limitations with
composites."
The development of carbon fiber/honeycomb/carbon fiber
sandwich structures eliminated the need for mechanically fastening together
black aluminum parts. That's the technology that Blue brought to Beechcraft
when Raytheon's Brainerd Holmes drafted him for the top spot in Wichita. Blue
was the father of the Starship. He intended to construct it with filament
winding tools in Utah. His goal was to build the Starship for the same cost as
the King Air 200, plus the additional cost of bigger engines.
But Beech's Frank Hedrick, according to Blue, was on
Raytheon's board of directors. Hedrick, according to Blue, pressured Raytheon
to retain production in Wichita and let Beechcrafters build the aircraft by
hand. Political pressure won out over production efficiency at Beechcraft,
according to Blue.
"That doomed the program. I knew that if we got away from
automation, we would lose control of weight and cost. And without that, why
attempt to build it?" Frustrated, he left the company in 1984 and moved back to
Denver, where his family acquired Denver Jet Center.
A longtime believer in nuclear power, Blue moved to San
Diego in 1985 and joined his brother Neil, chairman of General Atomics, as vice
chairman. He also continued to pursue development of composite construction
technology with longtime associate Larry Ashton in Spanish Fork, Utah.
Eventually, the Blue family would buy a controlling interest
in the company that would become Rocky Mountain Composites, a spin-off of
Aerotrans Corp. led by Larry Ashton. RMC provided Spectrum with the technology
and manufacturing resources needed to launch the Spectrum 33 program.
Blue plans to develop an entire family of Spectrum aircraft,
ones that weigh half as much as current production aircraft and use half the
fuel. "Those would be perfect aircraft. Now, we have to show that's reality."
That reality may become a necessity, if kerojet again soars above $5.00
gallon— or higher— in the future.
