Value chain · CLM-1137
In plain terms
In 1987 a Canadian model plane with a four-and-a-half-metre wingspan flew for twenty minutes at 150 metres on nothing but a microwave beam from a dish below, 150 watts to the motor from 400 watts per square metre at the aircraft.
The claim as recorded
Canada's SHARP programme flew "the 1/8-scale prototype SHARP with a 4.5-m wingspan" on 17 September 1987 "on beamed microwave power for 20 minutes at an altitude of 150 m": "A 2.45 GHz microwave beam was transmitted by a parabolic dish antenna, providing a power density at the airplane of 400 W/m2", and the dual-polarised rectenna array generated "150 W of DC power to the electric motor in order to lift and fly the 4.1 kg airplane", the aircraft being "a small-scale model of a 21-km altitude airplane".
Evidence behind this: T2-review restatement of Schlesak, Alden and Ohno [74] (GLOBECOM 1985) and [20] (IMS 1988), not held.
Scope and limits
NO TRANSMIT POWER, RECTENNA AREA OR EFFICIENCY STATED; the 400 W/m2 is the density at the aircraft, not the beam's total. Primaries not held. The register's only prior SHARP mention (CLM-0931) is an EMI anecdote from a NASA volume and says nothing of these figures.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF 8 / printed 236: "On September 17, 1987, the 1/8-scale prototype SHARP with a 4.5-m wingspan, seen in Fig. 12, flew on beamed microwave power for 20 minutes at an altitude of 150 m" (R1); "A 2.45 GHz microwave beam was transmitted by a parabolic dish antenna, providing a power density at the airplane of 400 W/m2" (normalised); "The dual-polarized rectenna array received enough microwave energy to generate 150 W of DC power to the electric motor in order to lift and fly the 4.1 kg airplane" (R2); Fig. 12 caption "Microwave-powered SHARP aircraft designed as a small-scale model of a 21-km altitude airplane" (normalised). PDF 2, Fig. 2 (crop reading): point [20] at about 150 W and 150 m. Recomputed: 150 W / 4.1 kg = 37 W/kg; at 400 W/m2 the DC output needs at least 0.375 m2 of collecting area at unity efficiency, so the rectenna was larger than that.
Basis: GHz; m altitude; W/m2; W DC; kg; minutes
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1137
CLM-1137, Energy Aperture, as of 2021-01.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-269
- CLM-1134The field's own 2021 scorecard: the two records were both set in 1975 (30-35 kW across about a mile, and 54 per cent DC in to DC out at...CLM-1135Modern power beaming, by the review's dating, starts in 1963 with a radar tube, a horn five and a half metres away and a single vacuum-tube...CLM-1136The famous 1964 helicopter hung fifteen metres up for ten hours on beamed microwaves, rectified by four and a half thousand diodes; then...CLM-1138A 1994 Japanese test sent five kilowatts from a three-metre dish to an eleven-square-metre rectenna 42 metres away and caught about...CLM-1139A 1995 Japanese blimp carrying a three-by-three-metre rectenna flew for four minutes at fifty metres on ten kilowatts of microwaves from...CLM-1141In 2002 a metre-wide rectenna moved along an exhibition floor in Houston, tracked by a self-steering 5.8 GHz beam, converting 82 per cent...CLM-1142In 2015 Mitsubishi Heavy sent ten kilowatts of microwaves half a kilometre along a Kobe pier to an eight-by-eight-metre receiver, enough to...CLM-1143Japan's flagship 2015 ground test: a solid-state GaN array of about one and a half square metres sent 1.8 kilowatts 55 metres and 335 watts...More on the source page.