So I may have asked this before, but I was wondering-are steam-powered aircraft possible? If so, would they be feasible/practical? How would they differ from similarly-designed aircraft with internal combustion engines (in appearance and performance)? Would they be cheaper to make than oil-powered planes, or more expensive? Also, would a steam turbine-powered aircraft be possible as well? How would such aircraft compare to aircraft from OTL and/or aircraft powered by reciprocating steam engines?
Steam aircraft?
- Thread starter Shtudmuffin
- Start date
Alternate History
Banned
Steam aircraft? I wouldn't trust them at all. You would need to have a constant Internet connection to fly one, for a single outage and it will crash no matter how high you are. Also, without constant valve updates, the blasted thing wouldn't even start. (Oh, and let's not forget that you couldn't actually buy the aircraft. You would merely rent it from the vendor and should it go under, you will also lose the right to use your vehicle.) Steer clear, folks.
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Very funny
On topic, no not really steam engines just aren't efficent enough to power a propeller at the speeds needed, and they require a constant external heat source, which is a bad idea where an aircraft is involved. Since this external heat would inevitably be fire there would also be the risk of the plane losing power above a certain altitude as the air pressure drops.
It was tried but no one ever got it to work before petrol engines came along and took over. An airship might work, but it would have to cruise at a low altitude which would make the trip even less efficent, since it would be fighting through a much higher pressure of air. Also fire hazard, big fire hazard.
I've no idea where that picture came from but if it's real then from the general design it must date from long after powered flight was achieved with petrol motors. Probably the late twenties, maybe the thirties, and it can't have been a major sucess, since no one else here seems to have ever heard of it.
On topic, no not really steam engines just aren't efficent enough to power a propeller at the speeds needed, and they require a constant external heat source, which is a bad idea where an aircraft is involved. Since this external heat would inevitably be fire there would also be the risk of the plane losing power above a certain altitude as the air pressure drops.
It was tried but no one ever got it to work before petrol engines came along and took over. An airship might work, but it would have to cruise at a low altitude which would make the trip even less efficent, since it would be fighting through a much higher pressure of air. Also fire hazard, big fire hazard.
I've no idea where that picture came from but if it's real then from the general design it must date from long after powered flight was achieved with petrol motors. Probably the late twenties, maybe the thirties, and it can't have been a major sucess, since no one else here seems to have ever heard of it.
It has been done, true enough. With modern technology they might even be practical, since it seems they could run on any heat source light enough to fit on the airframe.
That is the a steam powered aircraft by the Besler brothers. They built it in 1933 with a 150hp two-cylinder steam engine. It needed only about 30m of runway to take off and was extremely silent.
There were also several projects never completed with steam engines, here I´ll list only those after the Wright brothers, as previous attempts had more problems than just the engines:
The Bristol Tramp from 1920 had major construction problems, especially with boiler and condensator and the overpowered (!) turbine.
There were considerations to built a steam powered version of the Me 264, but since that project never took off anyway it never was attempted. The hope was to lower maintenance and have consistent power on all altitudes.
There was also a concept to equip a Hughes 300 helicopter with a steam engine in the 60s, but I don´t know why that failed.
This site quotes Popular Science Monthly. In rereading I noticed that the field to land is supposed to be 100 square feet big, not 100 feet (30m) long.
Fascinating.
Although I get the sense something is being overlooked. Something as useful as predicted would have caught on like wildfire, not been "What? Never heard of it."
I can see several possible reasons why it remained obscure:
The Beslers were bad at marketing or business. Would have been not the first nor the last time a good solution is sidelined by this.
or
The normal aircrafts were already to deeply entrenched and neither established aircraft producers nor airlines and most certainly not the oil firms wanted to rock the boat.
or
There were problems to improve the performance: to built a sports plane like this is one thing. A high performance fighter or a heavy transport plane is something entirely different.
Might also be a bit of everthing above. They built steam cars a lot longer and never got anywhere with that either. The last one they particpated in I know of was a Pontiac Grand Prix for GM in 69.
Researching to save you the trouble of actually providing information on something you mentioned is not my responsibility.
Delta Force
Banned
Hiram Maxim built a steam powered aircraft that was the subject of my first thread. It was powerful enough to fly/careen out of control above the ground for 200 yards with Maxim and a few assistants on board after breaking loose of its guide rails. The engine was technically superior to what was later used on the Wright Flyer, so the biggest challenge would be developing an aircraft capable of controlled flight that it can be used with.
Thande
Donor
I can't remember the details but there was an attempt to build a steam-powered heavier-than-air aeroplane as early as the 1840s. Obviously not successful but they got closer to success than you'd think giving the technical limitations of the time.
EDIT: it's on the wiki page someone linked to above
EDIT: it's on the wiki page someone linked to above
Steam aircraft? I wouldn't trust them at all. You would need to have a constant Internet connection to fly one, for a single outage and it will crash no matter how high you are. Also, without constant valve updates, the blasted thing wouldn't even start. (Oh, and let's not forget that you couldn't actually buy the aircraft. You would merely rent it from the vendor and should it go under, you will also lose the right to use your vehicle.) Steer clear, folks.
First you need to difine what you mean by aircraft. If you mean heavier than air aircraft then this should be in the post 1900 section. It was more than just the lack of a power source that prevented earlier flight, but also the need to develope light weight structures able to sustain themselves and their payloads aloft as well as means of control and an accurate way of calculating the lift generated by the machines wings.
Pre 1900 means airships, and some were flown with steam power in the 1850s. A bit chancy with hydrogen as a lifting agent but doable with care. What you need is a catalyst to prompt the development of the early experiments into practical craft. One possibility would be the Siege of Paris during the Franco Prussian war. The Paris garrison did use balloons to carry messages out, so it's not unreasonable to assume that in order to pass messages back to the garrison a small non rigid airship using the smallest an lightest steamengine they could find might be built. If it could be done before the end of the war and be seen to be both useful and hopefully reasonably reliable then the other European powers, especially the new German Empire would seek to develope their own airships if only so they could work out how to attack the things, and of course allow the generals to see over the next hill. By the 1890s though steam would have given way to petrol.
Pre 1900 means airships, and some were flown with steam power in the 1850s. A bit chancy with hydrogen as a lifting agent but doable with care. What you need is a catalyst to prompt the development of the early experiments into practical craft. One possibility would be the Siege of Paris during the Franco Prussian war. The Paris garrison did use balloons to carry messages out, so it's not unreasonable to assume that in order to pass messages back to the garrison a small non rigid airship using the smallest an lightest steamengine they could find might be built. If it could be done before the end of the war and be seen to be both useful and hopefully reasonably reliable then the other European powers, especially the new German Empire would seek to develope their own airships if only so they could work out how to attack the things, and of course allow the generals to see over the next hill. By the 1890s though steam would have given way to petrol.
Interesting source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_aircraft
More details on the Besler brothers aircraft: http://www.rexresearch.com/besler/beslerst.htm
More details on the Besler brothers aircraft: http://www.rexresearch.com/besler/beslerst.htm