Speedboat100
Banned
I think flying near high tension lines with an aircraft made largely of induction coils is sounding better and better.
It would be cool to recharge the plane remotely flying low in some kinda electric field.
I think flying near high tension lines with an aircraft made largely of induction coils is sounding better and better.
Your correct on that point ; but the way, and speed that knowledge...
Batteries aren't like microprocessors.They aren't doubling in capacity
every year and a half.
Roughly a factor of 4 and you'd be at the original Cri-Cri (9hp a side-twin engine) for one full size person. With currently flying electric examples.Your concept is much lighter than Sunseeker 2, having the advantage of not being made of matter.
For those playing at home, 4 kw = 5.4 hp. Less than that unless we wish away controller losses, motor inefficiencies, etc.
'So I need to fly in this uncoordinated bank all the time to keep the panels pointed at the sun?"
A 5hp aircraft can be very practical. It can carry two people...named Barbie and Ken.
You are aware who windward performance is and their previous accomplishments? Greg Cole is the designer of the Perlan, Sparrowhawk, Duckhawk, Lancair Evolution, etc... I know Greg Cole personally. Literally no one in the world I would trust more with aircraft performance predictions...Yup. They're selling an kit for an airplane that has never flown. That's the usual formula for massive disappointment.
Why fly low? I recall a Popular Mechanics article about aircraft powered by ground-station microwave beams. Wish I could find that article; it was probably in the late '80s.It would be cool to recharge the plane remotely flying low in some kinda electric field.
Haig Minibat weighed less than 40 kilos and had a combustion engine.....are you saying it was not made of matter ?Your concept is much lighter than Sunseeker 2, having the advantage of not being made of matter.
For those playing at home, 4 kw = 5.4 hp. Less than that unless we wish away controller losses, motor inefficiencies, etc.
'So I need to fly in this uncoordinated bank all the time to keep the panels pointed at the sun?"
A 5hp aircraft can be very practical. It can carry two people...named Barbie and Ken.
This has been done before, and Nikola Tesla wrote about this many years ago. Wireless networks use the same principle, although with higher frequencies and lower power settings.It would be cool to recharge the plane remotely flying low in some kinda electric field.
This has been done before, and Nikola Tesla wrote about this many years ago. Wireless networks use the same principle, although with higher frequencies and lower power settings.
However.
There are transmission energy losses. Huge losses. Only up to 85% of energy can be remotely sent with the existing technology. This means losses are 15% or more. People usually fail to see how huge these losses are, and what they turn to.
As an analogy, let's use a typical 100kW engine. That's 134 HP, like the new Rotax turbo typically found in newer aircraft engines. That would be 15kW of power, wandering around as a power surge. Can people imagine this much power?
A stove owen with an open fire is typically around 7 to 8 kW of heat. In other words, if the 15kW losses of a typical aircraft engine become concentrated at some point for any reason, a pilot might get fried by the huge amount of heat.
An airliner requires Mega Watt hours (MWh) of energy to fly around. These losses would simply be too huge or complicated to substitute the cheap energy source (oil) already used worldwide. The losses rise exponentially with distance, too.
If something is too complicated or dangerous, it will rarely see wider usage. There were electric aircraft in the past, powered by nuclear reactors. It seems this idea reached a dead end in the 1950s, and got ditched for its complexity.
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Convair NB-36H - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Yes the electric car was developed 1st - and then lead acid batteries for how many years?? But intense research on battery chemistry only really started with Goodenough around 1980 with lithium and then I believed it relaxed a bit and is now really picking up again because of the success of Tesla.Electric battery research started way before that. First full scale electric car was developed in 1830
"Necessity?” We've got very capable planes with a lot of mission flexibility that use internal combustion engines alone. Hybrid setups are a "necessity" for most current missions only if we first decide, for whatever reason, that electric propulsion is a "necessity."Embry-Riddle talks to Paul Bertorelli of AvWeb about why Hybrid Drives are the interim necessity.
It's hasn't flown and kits are being sold. Not my idea of responsible development and testing. I am old enough to remember too many cases of this sort of thing.You are aware who windward performance is and their previous accomplishments? Greg Cole is the designer of the Perlan, Sparrowhawk, Duckhawk, Lancair Evolution, etc... I know Greg Cole personally. Literally no one in the world I would trust more with aircraft performance predictions...
The SparrowHawk itself is calculated to cruise level flight at ~3-4kW. With 100kg of drive and batteries that could be a 500+mile platform also.
Greg gave a fantastic talk at a previous SAS.
The thermodynamic efficiency of commercial aircraft turbofan engines is over 55%, that is hard to beat by any "hybrid". Electric propulsion becomes a "necessity" only if adds a functional performance that cannot be realised otherwise, e.g VTOL or extreme STOL so the runways can be a fraction of the size they are now."Necessity?” We've got very capable planes with a lot of mission flexibility that use internal combustion engines alone. Hybrid setups are a "necessity" for most current missions only if we first decide, for whatever reason, that electric propulsion is a "necessity."
Aha. Reality sets in...I am currently designing and testing a small electric AC concept.
Lotsa questions rise.
How do I keep the cockpit warm in a cold country ( summer is no problem ) or at high altitude ?
How do I keep the window open if it freezes.
Is there light way to make flaps ?
Is there simple way to trim all flying elevator.
If I want to make it lite...what is the minimum G-load it ought to withstand as a motorglider.