"SoLong's ironless motor, combined with a drive
custom-designed by Cocconi, provides the
efficiency needed to keep the plane aloft indefinitely"
Posted on 10/16/2005 12:01:00 PM PDT by theFIRMbss
The motor appears to be more robotic than motoric. Something like this will be flying over the dust of Mars in the not too distant future.
Aviation ping
And I am confused,
If the power for takeoff
Is greater than flight,
And problems are caused
By this great disparity,
Why launch from the ground?
"Cocconi is talking with engineers at Solar Impulse SA in Switzerland about a bigger project: a manned solar airplane that would circle the globe"
-----------------------------------------------
I'd guess he wanted
this system as a model
for a full sized craft.
If it can scale up,
you can't arm launch an airplane
with a guy inside . . .
Can you say, "Big Brother is Watching You?"
Interesting that he doesn't use a canard pitch control arrangement instead of the tail. He might be using an unstable aft CG to accomplish a similar effect, trading stability for about a 10% increment in aero efficiency. Probably would be worthwhile, especially when you're scaling up fivefold to give yourself a useful payload . . .
So, we a supposed to be impressed with a 48 hour flight after he flew his first version for about two years?
:-Þ
You guys are starting to get me worried...
I noticed that too. Why not just build it at high altitude, then . . .Seriesly, it would seem to raise the question of the tradeoff involved in using a conventional engine and a small quantity of fuel to boost the vehicle to altitude.
Ah, but a plane can
Be launched by another plane.
Just ask Burt Rutan.
I believe that the loiter time of the UAVs and UCAVs are in the extended hour range.
Oh, Travis, get real.
I'm sure they've been watching you
for many years now!
There seem to be firms
trying to commercialize
stratosphere aircraft
that can stay aloft
for weeks, doing similar
work as satellites
but at lower cost.
For techie types, this might be
a growth industry . . .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
What If You Had a 12-Mile High Aerial Tower? [from the end of the article]
Alan Cocconi isn't alone in his vision of eternal flight and radio towers in the sky. One company, AeroVironment, Inc., has launched a subsidiary—SkyTower Telecommunications (www.skytowerglobal.com)—focused on such technology.
The company already is pointing toward its first production configuration: a hydrogen fuel-cell-powered aircraft that could stay aloft for a week at a time at a 65,000-ft operating altitude, at airspeeds of up to 100 knots.
"It would operate above the weather and above commercial air traffic," says Stuart Hindle, vice president of strategy and business development for AeroVironment, Inc. (www.aerovironment.com). "It's a station that keeps moving in a circle, acting in a fashion like a geostationary satellite, only 2,000 times closer to the ground."
Indeed, at just 12 miles, SkyTower's aircraft would be much closer to the earth than geostationary satellites, which hover at altitudes of about 220,000 miles. SkyTower's closer proximity, says Hindle, would produce extraordinary benefits, including lower infrastructure costs and a bandwidth density boost of a thousand-fold for telecom companies. Moreover, the fuel-cell-based technology could operate at any earth latitude, since it would not be sunlight-dependent.
Hindle says that the technology is attracting interest in the defense community, where it could also be used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and for network-centric warfare communications.
"Having a platform that could loiter over a battlefield for a week or more, and provide high-bandwidth communications, is of very high value to the military community," he notes.
Hindle says that flights of the company's earlier aircraft suggest that the production technology may be on the near horizon.
"With funding in place, we project the first operating capability in the stratosphere within two years," Hindle predicts. "Within three years, we could have telecom capabilities available."—CM
I don't count that microphone which the CIA agent posing as my dentist put in my molars. I figured out how to block that with lead foil years ago.
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