Re: Solar powered electrostatic motor drone ??

On 7/18/24 20:39, john larkin wrote:

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 19:21:23 +0200, Jeroen Belleman
<jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
 

On 7/18/24 18:42, Liz Tuddenham wrote:

Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> wrote:
>

On 7/18/24 07:46, Jan Panteltje wrote:

Researchers build ultralight drone that flies with onboard solar Bizarre
design uses a solar-powered motor that's optimized for weight.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/researchers-build-ultralight-dro
ne-that-flies-with-onboard-solar/
>
Well, ehh, unlimited flight time if any sun..
Looks funny.
4.5V to 9 kV power converter...

>
I wonder if electrostatic motors would have been as practical
as electromagnetic motors if the history of motor design had
taken a different turn a century or two ago.

>
I think Philips dabbled with them many decades ago.  A report will be
somewhere in the Philips Technical Review.
>
>

>
Thanks for that hint. The Philips Technical Review is a treasure
trove of interesting stuff.
>
I found a paper by B. Bollée on electrostatic motors:
<https://pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/02_PEARL_Arch/Vol_16/Sec_53/Philips_Tech_Review/PTechReview-30-1969-178.pdf>.
>
Jeroen Belleman
>

 I wonder how many orders of magnitude an electrostatic motor is worse
than a magnetic motor, in some criterion like power per volume or
power per dollar. 6 maybe?
 

It's not so easy to tell. Electromagnetic motors have benefitted from
a long and intense process of optimization, both for performance and
for ease of manufacturing. Throwing some ballpark guesses at a possible
realization of a 1kW electrostatic motor, I got a motor volume greater
than an electromagnetic motor, to be sure, but not hugely so. One or
two orders of magnitude perhaps. Certainly not six.
Jeroen Belleman