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Tesla's flying machine built

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Conundrum

Sun Feb 03 2013, 09:18AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Hi all.
Just found this page dating from late 2011, seems that someone has built a flying "saucer" using wireless power derived from a Tesla coil.

makes sense that someone would build it, still pretty impressive considering that the transfer efficiency must be pretty low.

Can anyone suggest a way to make this remote controlled?
Infrared might work..
-A

Physics Junkie

Sun Feb 03 2013, 11:11AM

Registered Member #7267 Joined: Tue Oct 16 2012, 12:16AM
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Posts: 407

Says video is private. Maybe its just my browser or something

Thats pretty interesting though.
I bet this could be controlled in many different ways. Radio, IR, Wi-Fi, etc.. Technology is advancing so quick, it's just a matter of time before it's done every which way. But more importantly is efficiency, as you said it has got to be low. Most tesla coil hobbyists make a coil for the spectacular spark output.. but making a coil which is based on its efficiency to transfer the most percentage of energy transformed would probably call for totally new designs. Dont get me wrong, there are efficient tesla coils out there obviously. But designing a coil to have the largest/strongest E-field that transfers a high% of energy I would think is a lot different then how people design DRSSTCs. Just my thoughts

-Harry

Avalanche

Sun Feb 03 2013, 12:19PM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

I couldn't see the linked video, but it got me searching and I found the original guy's channel here

Wow, discovered a whole bunch of surreal/mad laboratory stuff to watch

"Can anyone suggest a way to make this remote controlled?"

I would think at a given power, the flying thing would naturally find it's preferred distance or height from the TC - like a sort of control loop. If it flew too far, rotor power would decrease and it would fall back towards the topload and vice versa. So you should theoretically have good control already on the vertical axis thanks to gravity, but I'm not sure how it would deal with the other axis.

Conundrum

Sun Feb 03 2013, 01:48PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Yeah, methinks for highest efficiency the Rx would need to send power back to the SSTC to adjust its resonant point for near field versus far field operation.

On the flip side, could this possibly have explained at least some of the "Foo Fighter" reports from WW2?
Ground based induction power, based off a standard MW transmitter with a directional bias on one of the lobes.

On the Rx side a simple rectifier valve with its heater powered from onboard batteries and a simple induction motor and blade with wire coils as the motive force might have *barely* lifted its own weight.

EDIT:- I am attempting to prove this theory by building a version with 1940's era tech on the receive side, as the Tx is relatively simple.
have most of the parts including vacuum rectifiers, although in principle the coils could be wound using differential high frequency phased induction drive rather than using magnets like a normal motor.

EDIT 2:- Has anyone else explored the possibility of a toroidal Tesla Coil secondary as this would be the most efficient way to transfer energy due to the monodirectional lobe of the resulting RF output.
Putting a suitably insulated inner "field coil" magnifier would also help here..

Ash Small

Sun Feb 03 2013, 02:33PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

I rather suspect that Tesla himself was planning on using ion thrusters,which had been around since the early 1800's.

Physics Junkie

Sun Feb 03 2013, 07:45PM

Registered Member #7267 Joined: Tue Oct 16 2012, 12:16AM
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Posts: 407

He did patent the electrokinetic and electromagnetic flying machine on Jan 3, 1928. But it seems that there is hardly any credible information about this stuff. Except for the VTOL craft concept which is much different. Here's some quotes to ponder, very open to interpretation:

''You should not be at all surprised, if some day you see me fly from New York to Colorado Springs in a contrivance which will resemble a gas stove and weigh as much. ... and could, if necessary enter and depart through a window.''
-Nikola Tesla

"I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device.".
Nikola Tesla. Brooklyn Eagle (10 July 1931)

â€œThe application of this principle will give the world a flying machine unlike anything that has ever been suggested before. It will have no planes, no screw propellers or devices of any kind hitherto used. It will be small and compact, excessively swift, and, above all, perfectly safe in the greatest storm. It can be built of any size and can carry any weight that may be desiredâ€ -Nikola Tesla

"My flying machine will have neither wings nor propellers. You might see it on the ground and you would never guess that it was a flying machine. Yet it will be able to move at will through the air in any direction with perfect safety, higher speeds than have yet been reached, regardless of weather and oblivious of holes in the air or downward currents. It will ascend in such currents if desired. It can remain absolutely stationary in the air, even in a wind, for great length of time. Its lifting power will not depend upon any such delicate devices as the bird has to employ, but upon positive mechanical action." -Nikola Tesla. New York Herald Tribune Oct.15 1911

Ash Small

Sun Feb 03 2013, 07:57PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Like I said, ion drive

EDIT: From Wikipedia: "The official father of the concept of electric propulsion is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, as he is the first person to publish mention of the idea in 1911.[2] However, the first documented instance where the possibility of electric propulsion is considered is found in Robert H. Goddard's handwritten notebook in an entry dated 6 September 1906.[3] The first experiments with ion thrusters were carried out by Goddard at Clark University from 1916â€“1917.[4] The technique was recommended for near-vacuum conditions at high altitude, but thrust was demonstrated with ionized air streams at atmospheric pressure. "

I'm sure I came accross a much earlier mention of it, from the early 1800's somewhere.

BigBad

Tue Feb 05 2013, 12:59AM

Registered Member #2529 Joined: Thu Dec 10 2009, 02:43AM
Location:
Posts: 600

Not necessarily, he might have planned an electrothermal jet engine type thing. Or a magneto-hydrodynamic drive.

Ion drives are highly unlikely; they give ridiculously low thrust; the exhaust velocity is much too high and they're stupidly inefficient below orbital speeds.

Ash Small

Tue Feb 05 2013, 10:47AM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

I've not come accross magneto-hydrodynamic drives, I'll try googling them.

Electro-thermal jet is possible, but I think the simplicity of ion drive would have appealed to Tesla. I don't think efficiency would necessarily have been a priority for him, after all, wireless power transmission using Tesla coils isn't that efficient.

BigBad

Wed Feb 06 2013, 03:20AM

Registered Member #2529 Joined: Thu Dec 10 2009, 02:43AM
Location:
Posts: 600

Actually it looks like Tesla had an idea to create a reactionless drive based on spinning eccentric weights.

It violates conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, and looks silly, oh and people that have built it have failed to get it to work.

Oops.

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