Million dollar idea up for grabs

jimkeith

Joined Oct 26, 2011
540
The LEDs are the easy part--getting power to them is a little tricky--how about a wound stator on the rear hub of the propeller and permanent magnets on the front of the gearbox or engine?

Better yet: fiber optics running from the tips to the hub, illuminated by a stationary high intensity lamp--opearte only when the engine is running landing gear is down.
 

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
The LEDs are the easy part--getting power to them is a little tricky--how about a wound stator on the rear hub of the propeller and permanent magnets on the front of the gearbox or engine?

Better yet: fiber optics running from the tips to the hub, illuminated by a stationary high intensity lamp.
or a magnet on the plane and a coil on the prop. like a magneto in small engines for the spark.

EDIT: DOH I said the same thing you said. why did I not realize I was saying the same thing?
 
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jimkeith

Joined Oct 26, 2011
540
@standtor--forgiven--I often fail to read and understand too...

How do you protect blind passengers?

Clearly pilot error in my book--how do you keep the plane from crashing? a more relevant issue
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
For the heli's we used blades with fiber optics in them. Look at what some of these guys have done with fiber optics and LED's on their heli's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IExT_L7HLPk&feature=related
In the desert, rotors of full sized helos will emit a blue-green glow near rotor tips when they are worn. An aviation version of "St Elmo's Fire"

There's a few pictures of them around, look for "Halo" with apache, osprey, blackhawk, etc.
 
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