With a steam boiler, we wouldn't have to worry about 100LL going away, heck, you could probably use waste french fry oil or used motor oil for fuel.
Richard Pulley
2014-2016 TIC170A Past President
1951 170A, N1715D, s/n 20158, O-300D
2023 Best Original 170A at Sault Ste. Marie
Owned from 1973 to 1984.
Bought again in 2006 after 22 years.
It's not for sale!
It would be a nightmare on a freezing winter day. Can you imagine the icing problems with all that condensation?
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.
gahorn wrote:It would be a nightmare on a freezing winter day. Can you imagine the icing problems with all that condensation?
Probably one MANY reasons it wasn't a commercial success. Was that a problem on steam locomotives? Maybe solve that problem by adding a condenser and making it a closed system?
Miles
Miles
“I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less.”
— Thomas Browne
So how do you keep a condenser from freezing up at altitude and in cold wx? (Ans: Lots and lots of inefficiencies and dead weight.)
Speaking of dead weight...let's consider the fact that not only would the thing have to carry FUEL to heat the boiler to make the steam (presumeably at 6.7 lbs per gallon or so...) but it would also have to carry an additional amount of WATER at approx 6 lbs per gallon as well. Hmmmm.....
I can see the incident -report now: "Well...he didn't run out of fuel..... he ran out of WATER!"
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention. An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons.
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