Patent ID: 9238509
Filing Date: 2016-01-19
CPC Classification: B64C,B64D,F01B,F02G,F03G,F25B,Y02E,Y02T

Claim Text:
1. An aircraft with an emission-free drive, comprising: an aircraft thruster structured and arranged to generate thrust; an aircraft lift device structured and arranged to generate lift; and a heat engine, which is structured and arranged to convert thermal energy into kinetic energy to drive the aircraft thruster, comprising at least one flat-plate Stirling engine drivable by solar thermal radiation and wherein the flat-plate Stirling engine comprises: a working chamber filled with a working gas and having a top and an underside and a changeable working volume; a displacer structured and arranged to be moveable in the working chamber between the top and the underside; a regenerator structured and arranged in the working chamber to collect and deliver thermal energy contained in the working gas; a working piston connected to change a working volume of the working chamber; an inertia element structured and arranged in a rotatable manner; a drive structured and arranged to be connectable to the inertia element to drive the aircraft thruster; and a transmission structured and arranged to mechanically couple the displacer and the working piston with the inertia element, wherein the working chamber is located in the lift device and the working gas is heatable from a top of the aircraft lift device by the solar thermal radiation; the displacer being structured and arranged to divide the working chamber into a first and a second chamber region and, with movement, to displace the working gas from one of the first and second chamber region into the other of the first and second chamber region; and a top of the wing forming a first side of the flat-plate Stirling engine with a first temperature and the underside of the wing forming a second side of the flat-plate Stirling engine with a second temperature, in which the second temperature is lower than the first temperature.