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The Quest for Eternal Flight

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

The Quest for Eternal Flight

Unread postby DriveElectric » Wed 18 May 2005, 18:03:30

A very interesting article on solar flight. There is nothing really relevant to Peak Oil here. But I found it interesting in describing the way engineers and techincal people think. I suspect this mindset is why many techies and engineers tend to hold the POV that there are solutions to PO.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/thisjust ... -1,00.html

Efficiency-obsessed engineers like Cocconi and MacCready are believers in the power of amazing demonstrations to change the way people think about energy use and the possibilities of ultralightweight technology. As new materials and components are invented and existing ones continue to improve, their machines will begin to look less like exercises in exotica and more like something that can work. Like those cool drawings in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook.
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Re: The Quest for Eternal Flight

Unread postby cube » Thu 19 May 2005, 00:38:16

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DriveElectric', '.')....

I suspect this mindset is why many techies and engineers tend to hold the POV that there are solutions to PO.

.....
I'm a techie person or at least I like to think I am, but I certainly do not think there's a technological answer to the PO dilemma.

As for "Eternal Flight" probably the easiest way to achieve this is with a solar powered blimp. Yes I know a blimp isn't exactly what you'd call high tech, but it's very energy efficient, so you wouldn't need that many solar panels. Such a system would be ideal where staying afloat for a long time is much more important then speed.

For example getting a bird's eye view for border patrol surveillance or maybe a cheaper alternative to communications satellites? If the blimp was unmanned, maybe radio controlled, I don't see why it can't be kept afloat till the cows come home. Or maybe it could be taken down every year for basic maintenance.
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