As we continue to ponder what we’ll fill our gas tanks with in the future – Diesel? Biofuel? Maybe even plastic, as one intrepid Cessna 182 pilot hopes to do soon – it’s pretty interesting to look back through aviation history and realize that even early pioneers sought out alternatives to the gasoline internal combustion engine.
In doing research for my story on the Canadian National Research Council’s upcoming Falcon 20 biofuel test flights, I stumbled upon an old photo of the Besler Steam Plane billowing a white cloud of hot water vapor as its engine idled on the ramp.
