Beamed Energy Propulsion for Aeronautics: an Advent of Light-Driven Aircraft

(what Beamed Energy Propulsion can do beyond space applications)

by Andrew V. Pakhomov

In December 2003 we have celebrated 100 years of powered air flight. Images of Wright brothers and their first powered flyer Kitty Hawk appeared on covers of new books, conference booklets, stamps and even coins. Century-long progress of aviation is amazing. Indeed, if we will take a look at the differences between Kitty Hawk and some flying marvel of modern technology, like, say, B-2 Spirit (both planes are shown on right), we will see the changes of century-long progress. These changes are breathtaking. If only Orville and Wilbur Wright could see how far their experimentation with glued spruce and bicycle spokes will go!

The century-long way of progress is taking a new turn. One day the limited supply of fossil fuels and inevitably growing price on use of incinerating technologies will put an end to everything that moves out of combustion. Sooner or later, every internal-combustion engine on this planet from little lawn trimmer to huge transoceanic liner, wherever it is, will make its last pop and stop for good. What then? What will take the place of natural hydrocarbon fuels, and all buzz and smoke which they bring? Some areas, where massive installation is not a critical issue, will be inevitably taken over by a nuclear power, like it is already happening with large marine vessels. But what about aircraft? It is quite likely, that it will be light, that will bring changes. And the light will keep our new silent flyers to go farther and longer than we could ever dream.

The aircraft of the future will be powered by light and it will be fumeless and noiseless. It will be driven by solar energy during the day and by beamed light energy during night. Small flyers will be serving the needs of local individual transportation (substituting modern cars). Even the range of routine daily driving will be expanded from exhausting today 50 miles to several hundred miles of pleasant flight. (Similar range expansion happened with advent of Ford T and dwindling of horse-powered transportation). Scaled-up designs of these aircraft will work as long-distance passenger carriers. Jumbo jets will become the past and never again the price of fuel will dictate the cost of long-distance travel.

So what will be these aircraft like?

from 1903 (above) to 2003 (below)*

It will be built from lightweight composites. The upper surface of airplane wings will be covered with solar cells (alternatively, both sides of the wings could be covered with cells, see below). During the day flight the photovoltaic elements will convert solar radiation energy into electricity, which will run the motors of the plane. Part of this energy will be accumulated in the batteries for keeping engines running when the light is blocked by clouds or during the night. Sounds like too much dependence on capricious weather and too much battery weight? Perhaps, but the beamed energy can permanently fix both problems: reduce battery weight and eliminate the risk of power outage. Of course, this will take a network to build, but the effort will bring hundredfold benefits.

The power-beaming stations can be made on airborne aerostatic platforms, hanging at 3,000 – 5,000 ft altitude and charging passing-by aircraft with light beams from above. Equipped with spotlights or lasers (depends on the range and type of photovoltaic elements in use), such stations could serve approximately 120 square mile area each. Alternatively, the beaming sources can be placed on towers: this will reduce the range of coverage and require additional photovoltaic cells on lower surfaces of the flyers, which now will be charged with light beams from below. For the same time, ground-based stations will be much easier in operation and maintenance, not to mention building costs.

Power beaming and in-flight re-charging will be somewhat similar to modern day in-flight fueling, excepting that the process will be much easier and safer to perform and it will be available to everyone. If in-flight charging sounds too logistically challenging, as an intermediate solution the stations could charge the batteries on hovering flyers, the process somewhat similar to modern-day car fueling at gas stations. In this case charging flyer battery with electricity will be similar to filling car tank with gasoline, although there will be no mechanical contact, light will be beamed to the hovering flyer with a powerful spotlight (or laser). Flyer tracking and long-range power beaming technologies eventually will get mature and in-flight charging will step in place of charging in hovering mode. Individual aircraft will fly in the night from station to station and as far as the network goes (on-board batteries will cover dark zones). When sun will rise the stations will be shut till sundown while some may stay on duty for a rainy day.

Propulsion by light is a part of our future and I hope that this is where we are going now. The future belongs to individual, family-owned, light-powered and lightweight aircraft, capable of hovering, vertical take-off and landing (somewhat household modification of tiltrotor V-22 Osprey). These aircraft will be flying daily and safely without air pollution with fumes and noise. They will rule the sky day and night. How realistic is this? There are working full-scale prototypes of piloted solar planes. To learn more about solar powered aircraft check the story by Ron Laurenzo about Solar Impulse plane in May '09 issue of Aerospace America.

P.S. I just want to add that solar planes (or rotorcraft) are not the only option of future air transport. Beamed-energy propulsion can offer us a lot more. Applications of BEP in aeronautics were always a part of discussion on International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion (ISBEP), where a lot of relevant papers can be found. For example, you don't need any special technical degree to understand listed below ISBEP articles about light-driven airplanes and helicopters (Refs. 1-2) and autonomous dirigibles in Refs. 2-4. If you are looking for some in-depth research, please, check also Refs. 5-8 (some basic technical education will be needed for reading these papers). The next, Sixth ISBEP will be held in November 2009 in Scottsdale, Arizona. As expected, the discussion on applications of beamed-energy propulsion for aeronautics (as well as astronautics and micronautics) will be continued there.

*The images are reproduced by permission of www.aviatronix.com.

Ref. 1: Tim Blackwell, Recent Demonstrations of Laser Power Beaming at DFRC and MSFC, Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Andrew V. Pakhomov and Leik N. Myrabo, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 766, Melville, NY, 2005, pp.73-85.

Ref. 2: Takashi Yabe, Prospect of Solar-Enrgy-Pumped-Laser-Driven Vehicles Powered by Water, Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Andrew V. Pakhomov and Leik N. Myrabo, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 766, Melville, NY, 2005, pp.567-578.

Ref. 3: Masahiko Onda, Beam Driven Stratospheric Airship, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Andrew V. Pakhomov, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 664, Melville, NY, 2003, pp.523-534.

Ref. 4: Makoto Shiho, Kazuhiko Horioka, Gen Inoue, Masahiko Onda, William C. Leighty, Kuniyoshi Yokoo, Shoichi Ono, Kazuhiko Ohashi and Masaru Hirata, Proposal for Environmental Observation System for Large Scale Gas Pipeline Networks Using Unmanned Airship, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Kimiya Komurasaki, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 702, Melville, NY, 2004, pp.522-533.

Ref. 5: Itsuro Kajiwara, Hiroyasu Ishikawa, Shunsuke Furuya, Takashi Yabe, and Chiaki Nishidome, Control of Wing for Micro-Airplane with Smart Material and Laser, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Andrew V. Pakhomov, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 664, Melville, NY, 2003, pp.545-556.

Ref. 6: Masashi Yamaguchi, Ryou Nakagawa, Takashi Yabe, Choijil Baasandash, Keiichi Aoki, Tomomasa Ohkubo, Masashi Sakata, Youichi Ogata and Masamichi Nakagawa, Laser-Driven Water-Powered Propulsion and Air Curtain for Vacuum Insulation, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Andrew V. Pakhomov, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 664, Melville, NY, 2003, pp.557-568.

Ref. 7: Hiroyasu Ishikawa, Itsuro Kajiwara, Kentaro Hoshino, Takashi Yabe, Shigeaki Uchida, and Yoshichika Shimane, Development of Laser Propulsion and Tracking System for Laser-Driven Micro-Airplane, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Kimiya Komurasaki, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 702, Melville, NY, 2004, pp.342-353.

Ref. 8: Tetsuy Okita, Kentaro Hoshino, and Itsuro Kajiwara, Remote Control of Laser-Driven Micro-Vehicles, Proceedings of the Forth International Symposium on Beamed Energy Propulsion, ed. by Kimiya Komurasaki, Takashi Yabe, Shigeaki Uchida, and Akihiro Sasoh, American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, v. 830, Melville, NY, 2004, pp.553-363.

Have comments to post or Questions to the author? Please, let us know.

Or, feel free to join us.

Please, e-mail your inquiries to: secretaryaibep@aibep.org;

our mailing address is: AIBEP, P.O. Box 114, Caliente, CA 93518