At the turn of new century (December 2003) we have celebrated first hundred years of powered flight. Images of Wright brothers and their first powered flyer Kitty Hawk appeared on covers of new books, conference booklets, stamps and even coins. Century-long progress of aviation is indeed breathtaking. Kitty Hawk of glued spruce and bicycle spokes would be looking like a humble flea next to a modern-day behemoth, like B-2 Spirit, one of the most advanced creatures of modern aerospace technology.

Hundred years old road of our aeronautic progress one day will take a major turn. There is an inevitable change ahead of us and it will come because of the end of fossil fuels. Sooner or later, every internal-combustion engine on this planet from little lawn trimmer to huge transoceanic liner, wherever it is, will make its last pop and stop for good. What will replace natural hydrocarbons, and all buzz and smoke which they bring? Some areas will be inevitably taken over by a nuclear power, but for aircraft most likely this will be light. And light will keep our flyers in the air farther and longer than we can even imagine.

The aircraft of the future will be powered by light and it will be fumeless and noiseless. It will be driven by solar energy during the day and by beamed light energy during night. It will be serving to the needs of local individual transportation (substituting modern cars): even the range of daily transportation will be expanded from exhausting today 50 miles of driving to several hundred miles of pleasant flight. (Similar change happened with advent of Ford T and dwindling of horse-powered transportation). Scaled-up planes will work as long-distance passenger carriers, jumbo jets will be history. Never again the price of fuel will dictate the cost of long distance travel.

So what will be these aircraft like?

The bodies of new flyers will be made of lightweight composites. Upper wing surfaces will be plated with solar cells. During the day the cells will convert sun light into electricity, which will run aircraft motors. Some part of the energy will be collected by batteries, so in case of light outage (clouds or night time) the flyer could keep going. This may sound as a too much faith on bright sunlight and batteries: how about clouds and how about carrying heavy on-board batteries for night flights? Both issues can be solved entirely if beamed energy propulsion will become a part of the picture. This would require building of a network of power stations, but they would justify the construction costs hundredfold.

There are two alternative types of power-beaming stations: airborne and ground-based. Both types could re-charge passing-by aircrafts in flight. Airborne stations can be fixed at 3 to 5 thousand feet altitude on aerostats. Using spotlights and lasers (choice would depend on the range and type of photovoltaic elements), airborne stations can serve areas about 120 square miles. Ground-based stations will use light sources beaming from towers, their service areas will be lower, but so will be costs of operation and constructions. In case of ground-based stations the flyers will be charged from below, so they will have to carry photovoltaic cells on lower surfaces as well.

Power beaming will be something similar to modern day in-flight fueling, excepting that the process will be much easier and safer to perform and it will be available to everyone. If in-flight charging still sounds too logistically challenging, as an intermediate solution the stations could charge hovering flyers, the process somewhat similar to modern-day car fueling at gas stations. In this case in-flight power beaming will be the next step of new technology. Individual aircraft will fly in the night from station to station and as far as the network goes (on-board batteries will cover dark zones). When sun rises, the stations will be turned off till the next sundown or cloudy day.

Hopefully, this future is lying on the path of our progress. Life of internal-combustion engines finally will come to an end and light-powered, individual-owned aircraft will take place of modern cars. These aircraft will be capable of hovering, vertical take-off and landing (like modern day V-22 Osprey), and they will be delivering us on daily basis to our destinations without noise and smoke. How realistic is this picture? Well, there are flying full-scale prototypes, so how much realistic this needs to be? To read about emerging solar planes, please, read the story of Ron Laurenzo in May 09 issue of Aerospace America. To learn more about power-beamed transportation, please, visit the web site of American Institute of Beamed Energy Propulsion.