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NASA Helios was quite expensive and tricky to build, with not a lot of margin left for useful payload. There's a weight runaway that occurs with solar powered

NASA Helios was quite expensive and tricky to build, with not a lot of margin left for useful payload. There's a weight runaway that occurs with solar powered aircraft, look at Fig 12 in this report: http://hoburg.mit.edu/publications/gassolar.pdf http://hoburg.mit.edu/publications/gassolar.pdf Disclaimer: I worked on this project, so am super biased.

pdelbarba 9y ago
I'm aware, I agree that solar aircraft is not an easy technology. I'm mostly pointing out how inane this gasoline drone project is when there are real problems to solve. To put it in perspective, the Helios project was 18 years ago and the Solar Impulse project improved upon the tech significantly. Edit: just got a chance to look at the report. Thanks for the link, there are some really interesting findings in there.
throwawaycrank2 9y ago
Please read the next four paragraphs. Could you kindly reply with your email, as I would like to email you. I am a crank inventor (no but keep reading, just three and a half more paragraphs!) who has invented something similar to a free-energy machine, except in the field of aviation and specifically renewable energy flight, where free power is in the skies for anyone so it's not totally cranky. After all you just wrote a 27-page draft about it. (By the way your paper is very solid and prominently describes in detail several trade-offs that I address specifically through a different mechanism; you are the real deal.) I would like to work with a collaborator (such as yourself) and then patent and license the technology. Specialist patent offices I contacted said that they would have a conflict with their existing large clients Boeing etc, and for this reason cannot work with me. On the other hand if they do not have this experience it is kind of a catch-22. Your personal resources and if appropriate (if it works) your resources at MIT would alleviate this issue. We can discuss the rest by email. I look forward to your reply. It will not take much of your time to make a determination. I promise it will be interesting and well-specified (usually crank inventors misuse common terminology, don't correctly understand the principles they use, and are vague and underspecified, committing logical errors and non-sequiturs to arrive at their mechanism - this isn't like that.) Thank you!
- andygates 9y ago
  ...novel crank pitch, but just throwing it into a random discussion thread is fatal. It's already almost downvoted into oblivion. Show a prototype working, or people will (usually correctly) assume you're a scam or a kook.
  - throwawaycrank2 9y ago
    it just got one downvote (maybe before I finished writing it as I was editing it) so it's all right. I don't think there's anything wrong with reaching out for a contact via a HN thread. I'd specifically like to reach Lochie due to their comments here. (For example, no offense, but I'm not really soliciting your thoughts, andygates.) By the way I also found that Lochie (who I think I made a mistake and wasn't a coauthor of the paper they linked - I was thrown off by "I worked on this project"), reviewed another person's alternative scheme, so I'm doubly convinced they're the right person to quickly review my work. -> Lochie, in the meantime I actually did find your email (I just wasn't looking that hard I guess). Do you mind if I email you briefly? Thank you!
- toss1 9y ago
  OK, two obvious questions. What is the general range of weight vs power levels are you producing with your device (that wouldn't reveal anything about the tech, only what sort of craft it might suit)? What is the range of scales at which this device will work (what is the smallest, largest, optimum range for the device)?
  - throwawaycrank2 9y ago
    I'm not really sure why you're engaging with me. I wasn't really soliciting general feedback from the forum, Lochie (the poster I reached out to) has particular qualifications, and more to the point has evaluated other schemes which take a different approach. Lochie has a tool online[1] that lets you see some of these tradeoffs. Their blog[2] is fantastic. I suppose if you (toss1) wanted to give me some form of contact we could exchange a few messages to see if there is any overlap. Do you have any aeronautics experience or training? If the primary motivation for your writing was just curiosity then in the first instance I would prefer to work with an expert, sorry. Thanks for writing, and for your questions. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude by not answering them here. [1] http://web.mit.edu/lochie/www/erange/main.html http://web.mit.edu/lochie/www/erange/main.html [2] https://lochief.wordpress.com/ https://lochief.wordpress.com/

pdelbarba 9y ago

I'm aware, I agree that solar aircraft is not an easy technology. I'm mostly pointing out how inane this gasoline drone project is when there are real problems to solve. To put it in perspective, the Helios project was 18 years ago and the Solar Impulse project improved upon the tech significantly. Edit: just got a chance to look at the report. Thanks for the link, there are some really interesting findings in there.

throwawaycrank2 9y ago

Please read the next four paragraphs. Could you kindly reply with your email, as I would like to email you. I am a crank inventor (no but keep reading, just three and a half more paragraphs!) who has invented something similar to a free-energy machine, except in the field of aviation and specifically renewable energy flight, where free power is in the skies for anyone so it's not totally cranky. After all you just wrote a 27-page draft about it. (By the way your paper is very solid and prominently describes in detail several trade-offs that I address specifically through a different mechanism; you are the real deal.) I would like to work with a collaborator (such as yourself) and then patent and license the technology. Specialist patent offices I contacted said that they would have a conflict with their existing large clients Boeing etc, and for this reason cannot work with me. On the other hand if they do not have this experience it is kind of a catch-22. Your personal resources and if appropriate (if it works) your resources at MIT would alleviate this issue. We can discuss the rest by email. I look forward to your reply. It will not take much of your time to make a determination. I promise it will be interesting and well-specified (usually crank inventors misuse common terminology, don't correctly understand the principles they use, and are vague and underspecified, committing logical errors and non-sequiturs to arrive at their mechanism - this isn't like that.) Thank you!

andygates 9y ago
...novel crank pitch, but just throwing it into a random discussion thread is fatal. It's already almost downvoted into oblivion. Show a prototype working, or people will (usually correctly) assume you're a scam or a kook.
- throwawaycrank2 9y ago
  it just got one downvote (maybe before I finished writing it as I was editing it) so it's all right. I don't think there's anything wrong with reaching out for a contact via a HN thread. I'd specifically like to reach Lochie due to their comments here. (For example, no offense, but I'm not really soliciting your thoughts, andygates.) By the way I also found that Lochie (who I think I made a mistake and wasn't a coauthor of the paper they linked - I was thrown off by "I worked on this project"), reviewed another person's alternative scheme, so I'm doubly convinced they're the right person to quickly review my work. -> Lochie, in the meantime I actually did find your email (I just wasn't looking that hard I guess). Do you mind if I email you briefly? Thank you!
toss1 9y ago
OK, two obvious questions. What is the general range of weight vs power levels are you producing with your device (that wouldn't reveal anything about the tech, only what sort of craft it might suit)? What is the range of scales at which this device will work (what is the smallest, largest, optimum range for the device)?
- throwawaycrank2 9y ago
  I'm not really sure why you're engaging with me. I wasn't really soliciting general feedback from the forum, Lochie (the poster I reached out to) has particular qualifications, and more to the point has evaluated other schemes which take a different approach. Lochie has a tool online[1] that lets you see some of these tradeoffs. Their blog[2] is fantastic. I suppose if you (toss1) wanted to give me some form of contact we could exchange a few messages to see if there is any overlap. Do you have any aeronautics experience or training? If the primary motivation for your writing was just curiosity then in the first instance I would prefer to work with an expert, sorry. Thanks for writing, and for your questions. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude by not answering them here. [1] http://web.mit.edu/lochie/www/erange/main.html http://web.mit.edu/lochie/www/erange/main.html [2] https://lochief.wordpress.com/ https://lochief.wordpress.com/