Alternative Energy for Aircraft?

Alternative Energy for Aircraft?

Not long ago in an all-night online session at the Online Think Tank, the subject came up of Alternative Energy and power plants for aircraft. It turns out that there have been many alternative methods used to power aircraft. For instance in 1934 and 1935 a couple of steam-powered engines were built, no kidding and they worked too.

NASA has build hydrogen cell aircraft and Aerovironment thanks to the leadership of Mr. MacCready built a solar aircraft, which stayed aloft for 30 days. The question came up is it possible to take the power of the sun and focus it into a beam of light so powerful that it could run a steam-powered engine? Sure it could.

Wait, but how would you keep the aircraft pointed in the right direction? You would need a six-gyro unit to keep the mirrors pointed toward the sun and then reflected to the beam as the plane flew, turned, dived or climbed. Of course it would have to be within the aircraft body otherwise the drag might cause the aircraft to stall out or lose performance.

There are issues where the curves meet for co-efficients of drag and high-speed stalls for swept wing aircraft. And thus that would need to be considered if there were any protruding parts of the system.

Another idea floated was the collecting of electrons due to the electron exchange and static electricity coming off the wings and then use this for energy. Once, I had one idea that would be for GE Jet Engines. If they had a little vibration the LED light go from little green light to a Red light that would shine into the cockpit-warning pilot.

Could we use the static electricity from the friction of the air itself to power up at least part of the aircraft? I certainly hope this article is of interest and that is has propelled thought. The goal is simple; to help you in your quest to be the best in 2007. I thank you for reading my many articles on diverse subjects, which interest you.