Subscribe to the Blog
Solar Powered Plane Flight
Energy Utilization Theory?
Alright, so soon I'm going to go into my Energy Utilization class. I just hand an idea while I was driving home though. On History Channel they showed Jay Leno's own power generating windmill, only it was round so it spun in a circle (Hard to describe, look it up) Well what if you put these in the bottom of an airplane? While it was high in the air it will have generated enough power to practically fly the plane itself! Along with solar panels on the top of the plane it would be perfect since at the altitude of a regular flight the sun would be much more concentrated.
Now, I know one of the big problems is weight along with ways to convert that electrical energy into usable energy for the plane, but hell, this is all just speculation.
Leave any thoughts you may have behind! I want ideas.
Any windmill draws kinetic energy out of the air to turn it into electricity.
If you stick it on a plane, the energy to push the blades through the air is provided by the engines (ie the windmill causes extra drag). Energy is conserved; this is the first law of thermodynamics.
The second law of thermodynamics is that no process is 100% efficient at doing work (eg spinning the blades to make electricity), so you'd lose some energy as heat.
By attaching the windmill, you'd add drag to the plane and generate less power than it takes to overcome the drag. Your plane would be less efficient!
Solar panels are sensible though, since they don't add drag, they just utilise the energy of the photons.
Nearly 60 whales die in mass New Zealand stranding conservation Almost 60 pilot whales died Friday after me for ever lost on a beach in New Zealand, officials said.
