Burn Her!
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008In a world where everyone is a witch, would the few people who can touch water and not melt be feared and despised?
I Love Blimps
Friday, July 11th, 2008Idea: hot-air dirigible whose upper surface is a solar concentrator focusing at the center of the long axis. Axis is a tube penetrating and separate from the lifting chamber, with openings front and back, as well as inlet tubes along the sides. Sun heats the air in the balloon, causing lift. Simultaneously, it superheats the air in the inner tube, which expels out either the front or back, depending on the positions of various flaps, gates, or valves. A turbine placed in the flow path provides electricity for onboard systems.
It would be huge, and has an obvious limitation of daytime only, unless a supplemental heat source is included. Hot air instead of helium/hydrogen so no special tanking or materials required. Side inlets also provide steering. It would look boss. I’m guessing it would be pretty slow. Upside, unlimited operation as long as the sun shines and the fabric holds out. Maybe a retractable insulated topside blanket to extend night utility.
Is there enough energy in sunlight to make this work? What balloon shape would maximize solar exposure and minimize drag? Would it be better just to have the turbine generate power for standard propellers? Less cool, but better? Probably need internal lens/mirror to regulate lift/propulsion sunlight distribution.
UPDATE: I don’t know if this picture i’m about to post will show up, or if it will make any sense. But Bryce requested it, so what the hey.
Okay, I don’t know how to point to a pic on Flickr to make it show up here. Watch this space.
If I Were A Crazed Ornithologist, This Would Be My Silver Age Supervillain Origin Story
Thursday, January 31st, 2008Walking out of the grocery this afternoon, I looked up and saw the sky was full of birds. Darken the sky many birds, horizon to horizon. As best I could tell, I was the only one who’d noticed. These were my thoughts.
Wow, lookit all those birds. Is anyone else seeing this? Hmm, I wonder what the total mass of bird up in the sky is right now that no one is paying the slightest attention to? I bet they’d pay attention if it was the same mass all in one big bird.