Anyone?

[Skykid]

Hey all,

 

I haven't been on here in a while, been overly busy on a aircraft engineering course trying to get my L.A.M.E. Anyway, Me and a class mate found a interesting aircraft, a very old one. But it had a steam powered engine in it. I was woundering if anyone knew anything about it and could give me some insight on it. Here is a link to the video we found on youtube

 

 

Thanks

 

H

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

Go to Wikipedia and search for "Steam Aircraft". There is a good article there with a lot of references to the Besler steam aircraft. Scroll down to the bottom to find useful links to further information. What's missing is the critique on the design and the reasons it never went past a prototype. According to the 1930's article the engine weighed 180lb. (81kg) and it could do 400 miles on 10 gallons (38 litres) burning fuel oil at 800F (but didn't say how much). A condenser reclaimed the steam, cooling it to be reintroduced to the water tank, claiming 80-90% efficiency. One article claimed the Beslers were aiming for 100% reclaimation "where upon they could remain aloft indefinately." Journalists were clueless back then too! Another article said the engine was 500lb (225kg). There are a number of newspaper archive sites which have contemporary reports, but most appear to be of the "media release" variety - the Yanks being good at publicity. I guess the problems were the fear of sharing the craft with fire, fuel & boiling water and the logistics of including extra weight required for steam generation vs the internal combustion engine. They were also working on a steam driven car.

 

 

Sue