The Gravity-Powered Aircraft

2006-04-11 15:11 - Links

Currently a Nevada-based aviation company is exploring another creative way to utilize gravity as a power source — combining some very old ideas with some very new ones — to produce an aircraft concept which might one day tote people and cargo great distances without the need for fuel. The project is called the GravityPlane.

The idea of a "gravity powered airplane" initially sounds like pure bull. Gravity makes things go down! But in reality, this is mostly a high tech dirigible. The idea is to use lighter-than-air flight to go up, then glide down, and repeat. Surely it will be slower than fossil fuel based flight, but also that much cheaper for not spending the fuel, and friendlier to the environment. The only worry I have is all the talk of compressed air. Where's the energy come from to compress what seems like the massive amounts of air they describe using?

Comments:

Repeat?
2006-04-11 15:36 - arantius

I've ended up with more doubts anyways. The repeating part doesn't seem to work. I've relegated this to "nice dream" territory, in my book. Perhaps with modification, it could make a slow fuel efficient plane. But certainly not fuel-less.

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