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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| Electric Plane | ||
| An airplane powered entirely by electricity. |
I don't know of an earlier reference to the idea of an electric-powered airplane. Note that this is not a solar-powered plane, as described by John Campbell in The Black Star Passes (also in 1930; see solar-powered aircraft).
| A white electric plane approached at great speed, high above the course. It flipped over on one wing, turned, dove, and passed over the cabin-plane where the other members of our party had been watching the race through the binocular telescopes, and as it passed, the beam of heat severed the control wires of the tail surfaces. The cabin plane started down in great jerks, as Joey Vincennes tried to maneuver it to the ground in spite of the useless tail...
 (Electric airplane from 'Synthetic' by Charles Cloukey) [Something flashed in the sun above and ahead of me. I looked up and rccognized it as one of the new silent electric planes gleaming silvery white] ...he had a good chance of succeeding. The police planes were all on the ground. If Calvroon got one minute’s start with that silent electric skyship, the only thing that could catch him would be one of the racing planes, which of course had been stripped to the last superfluous ounce, and carried no arms. |
| Technovelgy from Synthetic,
by Charles Cloukey. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
The first electric airship was a dirigible powered by electricity:
The Tissandier brothers’ dirigible was the first to be powered by electricity. A 1.5 horsepower Siemens electric motor, turning 180 r.p.m., drove a two-bladed propeller through a reduction gear, producing 26 pounds of thrust (116 newtons). 24 bichromate of potash (potassium bichromate) cells provided electricity for the motor, which propelled the airship at 3 miles per hour (4.8 kilometers per hour).
The airship was 28 meters (91 feet, 10 inches) long with a maximum diameter of 9.2 meters (30 feet, 2 inches). Its gas capacity was 1,060 cubic meters (37,434 cubic feet). The total weight of the airship, with “two excursionists,” instruments and ballast, was 1,240 kilograms (2,734 pounds).
Here's another illustration from the original story:
8 October 1883: The first airship powered by an electric motor was flown by brothers Albert-Charles Tissandier (1839–1906) and Gaston Tissandier (1843–1899) at at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, France.
(Tissandier electric dirigible airship gondola [1883])
(Electric plane from 'Synthetic' by Charles Cloukey)
Compare to the solar-powered aircraft from The Black Star Passes (1930) by John W. Campbell.
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and Technology from Synthetic
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and Technology by Charles Cloukey
Tech news articles related to Synthetic
Tech news articles related to works by Charles Cloukey
Electric Plane-related
news articles:
- Rolls Royce Electric Airplane Breaks Records
- Eviation Alice Electric Plane First Flight
- Whisper Aero Ultraquiet Electric Aviation
| Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers |
| Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode |
| Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon |
| Engineer Creates Crazy Motorized Track Hospital Bed |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
