“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” – Joni Mitchell
Ultimately we will want to do away with most pavement; considering that the fresh asphalt gassing off into our atmosphere is like millions of miles of tar sands being spread out yearly. Some even say asphalt is a rectal disorder and that roadways are a very primitive and destructive technology; it is thought to be an overly complicated and expensive travel infrastructure that is best done away with altogether. The first paving stones, so to speak, laid towards this end, were set in place in 2008 by the NASA contract envisioned within the Google CAFE Flight Foundation and the Cafe Flight Challenge. This may be as important as the NASA LENR Boeing 747 or the NASA SpaceWorks LENR Spaceplane contracts, which were initiated in 2007.
Imagine a world of personal transport and package delivery without roads, gridlock, or rush hour long traffic delays, no need for parking lots.
Tear up the pavement, create greenways which replace highways, paradise returned.
The folks bringing this dream to reality meet at the 8th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, held April 25th and 26th, 2014, in Santa Rosa, California, an incredible gathering of experts and thought-leaders in the areas of electric- and sustainable-aviation. Highly educated impassioned volunteers and industry leaders power the Café Foundation. Google and NASA provide key technical and financial assistance.
Enabling concepts, which they are working with, have long included the energetics of low energy nuclear reactions, improved thermo/peizo electric conversion technology, advanced nano-tube “structural/airframe” energy storage, and supercomputer navigation capabilities. Dennis Bushnell helped forge the CAFE Flight Foundation NASA contract and has presented important technical information to them over the years.
From the Cafe Foundation
Dr. Shin to Keynote Electric Aircraft Symposium by Dean Sigler
Dr. Jaiwon Shin, NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, will close the Friday, April 25th session of the eighth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium with his keynote address, “The NASA Aeronautics Vision and Strategy – How It Relates to Electric Aircraft.”
Cafe History
5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium – 2011
Dennis Bushnell: Envisioning a Plausible, Positive Future by Dean Sigler
Consider that Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Benjamin Santer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) kicked off the first day of the 2011 Electric Aircraft Symposium with a highly-detailed examination of the issues surrounding climate change. That required an equally adept presenter to expound on possible solutions for worldwide problems, and EAS 5 delivered with Dennis Bushnell, NASA’s Chief Scientist at Langley Research Center.
His presentation, “Frontier[s] of Electric Aircraft Propulsion [The Responsibly Imaginable],” was far-ranging and wonderfully challenging, encompassing energy, aeronautics, and technologies from information technology (IT), bio, nano, energetics, and quantum mechanics, to societal technological systems.
Quoting Arthur C. Clark, “The roads to support autos cost as much as a small war and the casualties are on the same scale”, Bushnell looked at the 80-year dream of flying automobiles, and posited adaptations and alternatives such as robotic package delivery, 300 mile commutes, and flying shuttles for “the aged, the infirm, the young, and the inebriated.” Such personal air vehicle use, along with rail traffic, could constitute “a complete [physical] domestic transportation system,” according to Bushnell.
This approach would have enormous infrastructure and sociological implications, reducing the need for roads and bridges, built-up core cities, and allowing self-sufficiency in electronic cottages on their own large plots of land. Obviously, from this writer’s perspective, this would require a big change from the current 99-percent/one-percent economic dichotomy, because such alterations would require a greater prosperity for everyone, or a more layered society much like those in utopian fiction (or dystopian, as some might fear).
This will come about because navigation and control breakthroughs currently are being developed by the Department of Defense and package delivery companies; and ultralight, motorcycle-like flying machines will enable most to have a safe means of traversing space while avoiding downtowns and malls. These small machines would expand in size to include “Cadillac” level transportation and service delivery.
Bushnell thinks this is possible because the hardware and software Infrastructure involved would be “vastly less expensive than the current ground alternative.” He also foresees a demand for this based on “the HUGE markets [and] economic benefits,” and “because the People want the associated freedom/convenience/time savings/cost reductions” that could come from this visionary breakthrough.
He listed a promising number of ways to harvest energy, including wind, solar, wave power, geothermal, and biomass, but took them to the next level with suggestions for the extraction of atmospheric CO2, and using engineered microbes to convert the gas to fuel; low energy nuclear reactions (LENR and sometimes erroneously referred to as “cold fusion”); exploitation of energy potential in chemical bonds; and the use of positrons – the “affordable anti-matter.”
7th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium – 2013
Beyond Chemical – Exotic Energetics/Propulsion
Presented by Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA
LENR [Low Energy Nuclear Reactions]
- Originally dubbed “Cold Fusion”, an experimental discovery with replication issues and no acceptable theory
- Now, Almost 2 decades of massive world-wide data collection/experiments indicate is “real”
- Now, a viable Theory [ Widom/Larsen]
- Not “Hot Fusion”, is electroweak interactions explicable via the “Standard Model” of Quantum Theory on Surfaces
- Theory being used to increase heat “quality” and practicality, no radioactivity safety issues
- Economics/Utility TBD…..
Frontier Energy Storage/ Release Options
- Atomic Fuels, 20X Chem
- SBER – Mechanical, up to 100X Chem Release rates
- LENR – No radiation, up to E4-E6 X Chem
- Fast Compression – E3-E4 X Chem
- Isomers – Triggering?, E5 X Chem
- P-B11 or D-He3 Aneutronic IECF – E7 X Chem
- Positrons – Storage?, E9 X Chem
- ZPE – ? [ E108 X Chem?]
- SMES with CNT Magnets
- Metal-Air Batteries
- Nano tube energy storage [ H2, E-M] in skins/ structures
- The “Exotic Exotics” – Theories relating E-M & Gravity
LENR Utilization Approaches
- LENR produces Heat, Depending upon design a great deal of heat
- Can utilize the Heat directly as in open propulsion systems etc. or via such as Sterling cycles, Thermoelectrics, Pyroelectrics, T-PV etc. convert the heat into electricity
- Heat produced at energy densities, depending upon design, of E3 to E6 times Chemical, high power density should be possible. All with essentially negligible radiation issues/ problems/ weights and inexpensive fuels/ systems
Alternative Heat Storage Options
- Fulvalene Diruthenium, Via Molecular Rearrangements
- Zeolite Pellets, Requires water to extract heat, “Infinite” heat storage life, 4X H2O heat storage [‘Sorptive Heat Storage]
2011 Green Flight Challenge Sponsored by Google
The 2011 Green Flight Challenge sponsored by Google marks an historic achievement in aviation—the first demonstration of practical, cross-country emission-free flight. Final results.
Years from now, these first Green Flight Challenge team members will be recognized as the pioneers of the Age of Electric Flight. CAFE is already discussing plans for GFC II and will publish more on that at their website soon.
CAFE Mission Statement
CAFE Foundation creates and advances the understanding of personal aircraft technologies through research, analysis, and education.
Aircraft are submarines that swim in a sea of air
—Lyle S. Powell Jr.
Besides overcoming the force of Earth’s gravity, aircraft must maneuver against the friction and pressures of a surprisingly viscous and powerfully turbulent medium—Earth’s atmosphere. By comparing how aircraft move through this ‘sea of air’, the enthusiast members of CAFE have pioneered valuable new ways to study aerodynamics and improve personal aircraft.
CAFE developed award-winning flight test equipment and software that records extremely accurate speeds, temperatures, weights, pressures, frequencies and sound levels. These suites of CAFE flight test tools have turned the skies above Santa Rosa into a kind of “Nature’s Wind Tunnel”. (See “Order From Chaos“). CAFE’s flight test expertise has become a national asset recognized by many of those prominent in the world of aviation, including NASA, AOPA and EAA. (See Sponsors)
The diverse members of the CAFE team each contribute a special talent and expertise to the organization. But it is the magic of enthusiasm that has turned these airplane hobbyists into respected aeronautical scientists. The CAFE team arose mainly from members of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter (EAA) 124, where the passion for personal aviation is strong. Volunteers from EAA 124 have formed the backbone of CAFE’s success.
As we enter the Second Century of Flight, the non-profit, tax-exempt CAFE Foundation looks forward to enhancing its key role in advancing the science, education and growth of personal aviation for everyone. Learn how you can help.
EAS 2014 Registration
Members of the media, enrolled students or other special cases, please email a ‘request for special registration’ to: eas2014reg@cafefoundation.org
Educates and advocates new energy technologies based on cold fusion science and lobby to make cold fusion research a part of our alternative energy portfolio.
Safe and ultra-clean, from a water-fuel, cold fusion is the viable alternative energy that has the energy density to power a green technological future for all of planet Earth.
Cold fusion makes it economically-viable to recycle all waste. We can remove hydro-electric dams and restore the wilderness, saving species from extinction. No CO2 emissions puts a halt to further degradation of the atmosphere.
And no more dirty and dangerous radioactive nuclear power plants!
Low-energy nuclear reactions, another name for cold fusion, also show the ability to transmute elements, offering a path to clean-up the thousands of tons of radioactive waste that imperils our environment and health.
According to the researchers, this has allowed the true progress in a field of research that generally inspires suspicion, and a first indication in this direction would be the number of website “hits qualified” (ie made by experts in the field) now exceeds one million units.
