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"My feeling is that the chance of our surviving into the twenty-first century as working civilization is less than fifty percent but greater than zero."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Solar-Powered Aircraft | ||
| A plane powered entirely by solar energy. |
I don't know who first thought of powering an aircraft with solar energy alone; as far as I know, working models didn't appear until the 1970's. So, this is a fairly early mention of the idea.
| "Dad, I believe that you have been trying to develop a successful solar engine. One that could be placed in the wings of a plane to generate power from the light falling on that surface..."
"...the one big trouble with all solar engines, eliminating the obvious restriction that they decidedly aren't dependable for night work, is the difficulty of getting an area to absorb the energy. |
| Technovelgy from The Black Star Passes,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
The brothers Albert and Gaston Tissandier developed the first electrically propelled dirigible, first flown in 1883.
(Image: Library of Congress)
Compare to the electric plane from Synthetic (1930) by Charles Cloukey.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Black Star Passes
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and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to The Black Star Passes
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
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- Solar-Powered Aircraft In Fact and Fiction
- Solar Impulse HB-SIA Solar-Powered Plane Tested
- Electric Jet Planes With Superconducting Generators
- Solar Impulse Solar-Powered PlaneFlies!
- Solar Impulse Completes Night Flight
- VoltAir Electric Aircraft Concept
- Transcontinental Flight By Solar-Powered Plane
- Airbus E-Fan All-Electric Plane Now Ready
- Caihong Solar-Powered Drone 'Atmospheric Satellite'
- easyJet Short-Haul Electric Jets
- HVSD, Kitty Hawk's Electric Plane
| Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers |
| Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram |
| Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable |
| Darpa 'Defiant' Unmanned Autonomous Ship |
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
