Steam power

[A A Gruntpuddock]

Steam powered plane - never heard of that before.

http://coopfeathers.********.co.uk/2014/01/friday-night-steam_17.html

[Rosevidney1]

A single flight only though........

[dubbleyew eight]

search youtube for 'steam power airplane' and you'll see footage of a number of 1030's aircraft.

use the american word in the search or you get a musical piece.

[joy ride]

AAG, your link does not seem to work!

Steam engines were proposed and even used on planes and airships long before the Wright Brothers' first flight, and for quite a time after it too. Cayley, Stringfellow, Maxim, Ader and others designed steam powered planes which gave the Wrights a large body of knowledge and experience to guide them. Ader's Eole is even claimed to have hopped into the air, some say for longer than the Wright's first flight, but it had no means of 3 axis control.

The power-to-weight ratio of early steam engines was too low, but Percy Pilcher had developed his glider to a reasonable level and was making an I/C engine which could well have beaten the Wrights if he had not been killed after his landlord insisted he did a demonstration glide in poor weather.

Steam planes of the 1920s and 30s like the Bessler (see You Tube) were quite sophisticated. Proponents of steam were driven by the fact that I/C engines of the time were not very reliable. Steam was a path to nowhere, but valuable lessons were learned.

[Allan Lupton]

You have to be a bit specific about how the steam is used!
I remember a lecture by a former de Havilland Engines rocketry man in which he made the point that as the main combustion product of the HTP/kerosene rocket motor is steam, the SR53 could be regarded as the ultimate steam aeroplane:
http://www.spaceuk.org/sr53/sr53.jpg

[joy ride]

^ Good point! If anyone is interested in all manner of obscure technologies and inventions I can heartily recommend this fascinating website:

The Museum of RetroTechnology (http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm)

Mech heaven!

[Basil]

AAG, your link does not seem to work!
Replace the stars with b l o g s p o t (without the spaces)

[joy ride]

Many thanks Basil. I had a feeling the first post's link might have been referring to the Besler. (I mistakenly spelled it Bessler, my apologies!).

[Rick777]

Steam jet is what we used to call the old KC135A with water injection.

[N210KD]

Crew of three; two pilots, and a fireman to shovel the coal. :eek:

[onetrack]

The original article appeared in Popular Science Monthly in July 1933.

WORLD'S FIRST Steam-Driven Airplane | Modern Mechanix (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/worlds-first-steam-driven-airplane/)

The Doble brothers were exceptionally clever inventors, designer and manufacturers, and a very large % of the last of the Doble Steam Cars have survived, due to their superb construction, from high-quality materials.
The Doble Car company didn't fail because of the vehicles design - it failed because it was too highly-priced, and because of the Great Depression, and because Abner Doble was a better engineer, than a finance and management man.

I have little doubt that if modern technology and current high-tech materials and engineering were applied to the 1930's steam-engine designs of the Dobles and the Beslers, it would definitely offer a viable alternative to IC engines today.

The Last Great Steam Car; Damn Interesting (http://www.damninteresting.com/the-last-great-steam-car/)

I also found rather interesting, in the Popular Science article, the reference to the steam aircraft of Sir Hiram Maxims (he of the Machine Gun fame), that effectively took to the air in 1894 - even though it wasn't supposed to!
This makes Sir Hiram, the true claimant to the title of the first man to fly a powered, heavier-than-air machine, beating the Wright Bros by 9 years.

The Pioneers : An Anthology : Sir Hiram Maxim (1840 - 1916) (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/maxim.html)

Sir Hiram Maxims Captive Flying Machines (http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sir-hiram-maxim-s-captive-flying-machines/)

[Rosevidney1]

Thank you joy ride. A fascinating link. It will ensure this old retiree does even less work around the house!