Got drunk with a pilot last night, said commercial airplanes are electric.

The retired captain was loaded and became very talkative. He said, it as clear as day; "airplane engines are electric!" He said it would be impossible for a 747 weighing +327 tons to fly on fuel like the Space Shuttle did which only weighed +80 tons and needed 20x that in fuel to launch and would make commercial flying extremely expensive and potentially dangerous.
[link to coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu]

He explained it like this; "it's all made possible by the auxiliary power unit (APU) a highly efficient generator located at the tail of the craft that powers the engines which are designed to alternate their own electricity as they compress air for thrust becoming self sustaining during cruise flight or they couldn't make 15hr trips."
[link to electrical-greece.blogspot.ca (secure)]

I jokingly ask him about all this flat earth business, he laughed it off saying that it was all horse-shit that earth is as round as a Chinese plum. At which point it assured me he had been completely honest. I then made a quick reference to 911, that it would have been impossible using electric passenger airplanes on 911! His immediate reply: "911 was an inside job!"