Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
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MAKE subscriber Will Pickering sent us a link to this fascinating video. Will writes:
This came through one of my steam email lists. Pretty cool plane modified with a 150hp flash boiler steam engine. Made for an almost silent airplane. And it can even go in reverse!
From the lengthy YouTube description:
A Travel Air 2000 biplane made the world’s first piloted flight under steam power over Oakland, California, on 12 April 1933. The strangest feature of the flight was its relative silence; spectators on the ground could hear the pilot when he called to them from mid-air. The aircraft, piloted by William Besler, had been fitted with a two-cylinder, 150 hp reciprocating engine.
[Thanks, Will!]
10 thoughts on “Steam-powered bi-plane, circa 1933”
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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.
View more articles by Gareth Branwyn
That wasn’t particularly impressive.
Quiet and 150hp are fantastic. Carrying enough water and fuel to make it a viable aircraft for any distance is the tough part, as both water and fuel are heavy.
And let us not forget John Hartford:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4WmeGEKjQE
“Take us home on the ol’ steam-powered airplane..”
it’s a life size airhogs model plane
Hail steam. Water (Hydrogen and Oxygen) and electricity the key to future energy generation and uses.