what is a stirling engine good for?

Question

I may have miss spelled stirling

Answer 1

it is good for aircraft powerplant.Because
First, the Stirling is silent. Aviation needs quiet airplanes. Smooth torque and lack of vibration are good reasons too. General aviation is the last major user of leaded fuel, and we need to find an engine that doesn't cause this pollution. For safety reasons, we also need a fuel that is less explosive. Stirlings will burn turbine fuel, home heating oil, or whatever.

The Stirling is a very fuel efficient cycle. In fact, it comes closest to the Carnot theoretical limit of efficiency, and is better than the diesel or otto or turbine engines. The Stirling has cool exhaust!

Altitude performance is a strong reason to develop the Stirling. Imagine what would happen if we had powerplants that didn't lose power at altitude. If a Bonanza, for example, could hold constant power, it would cruise twice as fast at 40,000 ft as it can at sea level. This is due to reduced airframe drag in thinner air. Since the Stirling operates on the ratio of outside ambient temperature to burner temperature, as OAT drops the power actually increases. So the plane can fly more than twice as fast. We can expect to develop general aviation aircraft that easily fly nonstop coast to coast when we have the Stirling powerplant. Plus, flying above the weather rather than through it has safety advantages, too.

Those are just a few reasons why we need this new powerplant.

Answer 2

On one of the many sites devoted to the Stirling engine I saw pictures of a small tractor on a farm or ranch which was powered by one.

Answer 3

This engine is self-contained (the same gas is used in heat transfer by continually being recycled from hot to cold side) and it is able to be used in outer-space without loss of gas. It is very simple in construction, and safe to operate (for which reason it was designed by Rev. Sterling. Many people at the time of this engine development were being killed by boiler explosions).

Answer 4

i was just looking up sterling engines the other day. it is a very interesting invention that never seemed to have practical use. although i believe i read nuclear submarines sometimes implement them. there's a really good write up on www.howstuffworks.com about the thing.