This is an article from the January 2004 issue of Flying Magazine
Gravity Powered Airplane
Hunt Aviation
is promoting a gravity-powered, fuel-less airplane. The theoretical
airplane would alternate between rising like a hot air balloon--its
helium filled structure is like that of an air-ship--and gliding back
toward earth, gaining speed and ground in the process. During the dive
it generates power via wind turbines. That power can later be used for
compressing air into the aircraft, making it heavy enough to loose lift
and dive again, continuing the cycle. The chief |
theorist behind
the gravity-powered airplane, Robert D. Hunt, says that comparisons
to a perpetual motion machine are off base. His airplane, he claims,
exists in an "open system" in which the missing energy input
is gravity, a force his design harnesses.
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