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The real breakthrough in electric aviation will come when it is combined with beamed energy. Rather than storing power onboard the vehicle, you have ground-base

by nkoren 11y ago

The real breakthrough in electric aviation will come when it is combined with beamed energy. Rather than storing power onboard the vehicle, you have ground-based stations which power the vehicles with tracking microwave tightbeams. That way, you only need enough onboard battery power to take off, land, and bypass one broken ground station -- maybe 15-20 minutes of total flight time. This would allow electric aircraft to be considerably lighter than hydrocarbon vehicles, even considering the current energy-density of batteries. Beamed-energy flight systems are being developed for space launch[1], but I don't know of anybody yet doing this for plain old aviation. It's a gap waiting to be filled. 1: http://escapedynamics.com/ http://escapedynamics.com/

mrfusion 11y ago
What about the beams killing birds? Maybe have three beams that don't converge until the plane?
- debacle 11y ago
  Forget the birds, lets not microwave the atmosphere.
  - nkoren 11y ago
    If you think about it (or run the numbers), you'll realise that our present system of jet engines actually dumps far more heat into the atmosphere than this would.
- Sanddancer 11y ago
  With the power you'd need for such a system, three beams would almost certainly mean three times the dead birds.
- nkoren 11y ago
  First, you can place the beaming stations on towers -- most birds stay within a few hundred feet of the ground (which is why skydivers don't have to worry about smacking into them). That'll rule out the majority of bird conflicts. Second, put a high-definition video camera aimed down the barrel of the beam, with enough field-of-view that you get a second of warning before a bird crosses the beam. With automated image recognition you should be able to switch off the beam within a few hundred milliseconds of detecting a bird. Switch it back on again when the bird leaves the beam path. Because the plane isn't being directly powered by the beam -- it's just topping up its onboard batteries -- the disruption should not be consequential.
TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
So if the beam is cut off, the plane falls out of the sky?
- mrfusion 11y ago
  Reread the comment, it addresses that issue.

by nkoren 11y ago

mrfusion 11y ago

What about the beams killing birds? Maybe have three beams that don't converge until the plane?

debacle 11y ago
Forget the birds, lets not microwave the atmosphere.
- nkoren 11y ago
  If you think about it (or run the numbers), you'll realise that our present system of jet engines actually dumps far more heat into the atmosphere than this would.
Sanddancer 11y ago
With the power you'd need for such a system, three beams would almost certainly mean three times the dead birds.
nkoren 11y ago
First, you can place the beaming stations on towers -- most birds stay within a few hundred feet of the ground (which is why skydivers don't have to worry about smacking into them). That'll rule out the majority of bird conflicts. Second, put a high-definition video camera aimed down the barrel of the beam, with enough field-of-view that you get a second of warning before a bird crosses the beam. With automated image recognition you should be able to switch off the beam within a few hundred milliseconds of detecting a bird. Switch it back on again when the bird leaves the beam path. Because the plane isn't being directly powered by the beam -- it's just topping up its onboard batteries -- the disruption should not be consequential.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

So if the beam is cut off, the plane falls out of the sky?

mrfusion 11y ago
Reread the comment, it addresses that issue.