Last night I had quite the fever, got ache, just completely ill. Started feeling better a little bit ago, but that's not the reasoning for this post. Nope, rather I believe I thought of a new engine design.
Okay, probably not. I mean, it all worked out in my head when I was feverish, but duh, I was delusional. At some point I'll edit in some artwork to better explain what I was envisioning, but for the meantime you'll have to just bear with me. My engine / ship design is like this:
Cockpit sits central inside a massive ring. If you can imagine the scale, the cockpit would be an inch in diameter, the ring being four inches in diameter. The ring is attached to the cockpit by three struts. These struts are the same height as the ring, and are evenly spread around the cockpit. I think we can all pretty much imagine this look, yes? The pilot sits atop within a clear dome, overlooking everything.
Kinda looks like a classic UFO, doesn't it? Except my design is a ring, whereas a UFO is solid.
Okay, for the mechanics aspect of things. The ring is actually comprised of two ring structures, they're just coupled together. Umm... how to explain it... oh, okay, imagine a bicycle tire. Take the tire off, you have the tube sitting inside the rim; it's the rim and the tube I am describing, except the tube would be facing in and the rim would be the outer. The three support struts are connected to the outer ring (the rim). This allows the inner ring (the tube) to spin when needed. The outer ring has panels that slide down, making it's height longer; think of an airplane wing, and how the trailing edge extends or folds down for take-offs, that's what the outer ring does. Except there are panels all along the circumference of this outer ring so that any edge could be forward facing.
Don't worry, this will make sense in a bit.
The three support struts act like the tail and stabilizers of an airplane. Each one can be angled different to provide a horizontal flight pattern. Now there is a catch: the stabilizers, because of the ring, cannot go completely horizontal. I hope you can visualize that, that it just can't happen. So, at best, this craft would only be able to move in a skipping fashion. It rises for a bit, drops for a bit, rises, drops.
Again, this sounds eerily familiar. Remember how people described the movement of flying saucers? "Like a stone skipping across the water."
The cockpit is in a leveling gyroscope. This is important to know because this craft is also capable of space travel. In atmospheric flight, the support struts and outer ring with the adjusting trailing edge act like a flying wing. The craft has to be "flat" because of drag and atmospheric conditions; there just isn't enough lift generated for the craft to be vertical. But in space? Imagine those flying airplanes that look like bracelets. That's how this craft would appear to fly through space.
Flight? Pfft... where's the propulsion? How is this craft able to fly?
In an atmosphere, while the craft is horizontal, the inner ring spins. This creates a vacuum, drawing air in over the ring and down under the craft, effectively pushing it up (lift). Perhaps the inner ring looks more like a turbine, with angled teeth, so that when it spins it acts like a helicopter. Or a combination of both? That works for me.
But in space? Hehheheheh. The ring acts like a hydrogen scoop. I don't know the correct terms or the actual science behind this, but the hydrogen is drawn towards and over the support struts. I don't know what, whether it creates an ionizing charge or what, but in turn this charge forces the hydrogen out through the back / bottom of the ring, acting as a thrust. The longer the craft is in flight, the faster it goes. A side effect of this is that the ring begins to take on a glow as energy is built up, like a St Elmo's Fire.
The same thing happens in an atmosphere as well, though the build up isn't as much as in space. Why? Because of the atmosphere. External heat or energy tends to be washed away in the air.
Now think about it: UFOs are reported to have a glow, an electrical hum while in flight. There's a whining hum when they take off. In my fever thoughts, did I unwittingly figure out UFO flight?
