steam

In early 1950s Pratt and Whitney was working on supercritical water ducted blower aircraft engine. 410 MW thermal energy source was heating highly pressurized water to 1000F. Here is the description of this engine from Aviation Week , December 19, 1960. 2.98 m low pressure air compressor/blower...

I have read that the Germans experimented with steam power for their Panzers in ww2. I expect that the multi-fuel nature of this technology was attactive to the Germans when they started to run out of petrol. Steam engines can produce high torque at low speeds, an attactive feature for a tank...

You thought the Besler steam-engine biplane of 1933 (see next post) was wacky? Meet the 1954 Boundary Layer Control (BLC) aircraft project with FOUR steam engines!! Source: A STEAM POWERPLANT FOR AN AIRPLANE EQUIPPED WITH BOUNDARY-LAYER CONTROL (University of Wichita, September 1954) [NOTE...