At 10:15 PM 5/05/2011, you wrote:
...some say oxygen is produced and carbon is "sinked" by trees.
Little do they know that most of that cycle is done by our oceans
and the little critters within. Thus most of our fossil fuels
originate from our oceans. Let's blame continental drift for it
ending up under our land masses. Feasible theory. Same for Titan.
You obviously don't know anything about Titan. Are you implying life
existed there?
But how about the inefficiency of using a turbo-jet engine compared
to turbo-fan and turbo-prop engines at low speeds? Let alone
extracting and refining vast amounts of higher chain hydrocarbons.
Why not use solar light? The nit-ti grit-ties of accumulating
electron differentials are being improved as we type.
Well my calculations indicate lower fuel burn for a launch than with
aerotow and around half the fuel burn of a car for a typical
retrieve. Yes the propulsive efficiency isn't great but there are
other advantages such as low installed mass in the fuselage. With the
self launch and retrieve capability you could operate from airstrips
closer to home. More fuel saving.
There have been recent developments: AMT now have kero start on the
23.5 and 40 Kg engines and have an 80Kg engine in production (that's
not on the website yet). There is a new manufacturer who has a 30Kg
engine with kero start (BF Turbine - an offshoot of Behotec) that you
can buy right now for A$6500 and a 50 Kg engine running on the bench.
Then there's the TJ100 in the Bonus(110Kg). Bob will sell you one
along with the engineering to put it in your glider. I think it is
overkill for self launch but I'd want it in a jet power plane.
There's a jet glider already flying in Oz (ASH25). Could use more
thrust than the 2 x 40Kg engines.
Political monkey dance aside: the Prius is now in the third
generation (Cameron Diaz even likes it...) and the panels on the
roofs of those that installed them seem to work as well.
Yeah my solar panels do what I calculated they would. Great for me,
ridiculous for the nation. Oh goody, Cameron Diaz as a technology consultant.
The steam engine, micro processor and electric vario were once
labelled "useless projects" as well.
No they weren't. There were readily identifiable uses and advantages
for all three. I saw my first electric vario the first weekend I went
to learn to fly gliders in late 1966. Just over a year later I had
built one to a circuit published in AG(modified). We tested it in the
Physics department lift at UWA. It had some problems. I revisited the
concept in 1974 and fixed them.
Admit it, Mike, you are spending more time flying electric pushers
and impeller types than flying jet powered models. I just witnessed
one of these "oh so dangerous" LiPo's being crunched to mush induced
by an aerobatic "standing 9" figure. It didn't explode nor ignite
(very disappointing...)
You're sure it was a LiPo not a LiFePo4 battery? As I've said,
electric is GREAT for R/C models. You may like to search Youtube for
clips of burning Lipos. Notice they charge them in flame and
explosion proof bags?
Voyager was another one of those "useless projects". But it did fly
around the world in a single flight. What if Solar-impulse can do the same?
So what? Paul MacCready proved human powered flight was actually
possible 35 years ago. This has gone exactly nowhere since as has
unrefueled around the world flight except it was done again in a jet,
faster and higher and solo.
If wind and solar energy are so good how come the only use for
sailboats nowadays (in advanced civilizations) is fun? Likewise the
only use for sailplanes. The change to steam from sail was quite
dramatic even with the crummy early marine steam engines. Says heaps
about sail.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments since 1978
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
fax Int'l + 61 746 358796
cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784
email: [email protected]
website: www.borgeltinstruments.com
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