stormfish

radioshack

it could theoretically be done with some simple components and not too difficult programming. get an FM braodcaster (for ipods, cdplayers ect...) these have a rather small range and therefor are perfect for your plan, plus come pre-programmed for your means. attach your broadcaster to the car and hook up kfed's album (paris hilton's would work too; we're going for destruction here) and attach a small fm radio set to the same frequecy to the plane. modify the FM radio by removing the speaker and running the wires to a soelnoid relay instead, this will become the auto release for your payload. (the power to the speaker may not be strong enough to operate the soelnoid, so you may have to build a cheap signal amp for this with a 9 volt battery and a couple of resistors. see http://www.hackaday.com for this) fly plane within range and enjoy the destruction of a bad cd, a toy car, and whatever your payload is. easy targeting system w00t!

I think you missed my concept on how the engine would be utilized. the turbine is completely enclosed and drives a driveshaft, not a turbo prop. the thrust is still controlled via a transmission. similar to the m1a1 abrahams tank. google the ecojet, or chevy's gas turbine car of the fifties.

if the "driveshaft" were brought up to speed without using fuel (running on electricity) the turbine would be able to run at a nearly constant rate. and using an infintley variable transmission it would theoretically easy to take extra horsepower off to run generators. but you do have a valid point with the car being extra heavy.

unfortunately the only place in the world that hydrogen fueled cars is feassable is in iceland, with their abundance of geothermal energy. it costs almost half again the energy to produce a litre of hydrogen fuel as you would ever get out of it. plus the fact that to compress hydrogen fuel enough to prevent re fueling every fifteen minutes worth of driving, it would have to be pressurized to 10000lb/sq inch. not a safe pressure by any standard. solar panels and wind turbines could theoretically produce enough hydrogen to power cars, they are, as of yet, too unreliable and slow to be of much help.

the current mode of thinking suggests that the only use for turbines in automobiles is to power electric engines, but I have an idea I would like to see come to fruition. a true electric/gas turbine engine. turbine engines are horribly inefficient at low rpm, and electric engines are limited to relativly small run times with current battery technology. but why not combine both of these engine to run in tandem depending on how the car is driven? an electric motor could drive a car up to an effiecient running speed and then transfer power over to a turbine engine to run rather efficeintly. this idea would primarily be useful in semi trucks, trains, and ocean liners, but racing enthusiasts could also benefit from the huge amounts of horsepower available in turbine engines. check out the new Ecojet car. or any electric car on the market and simply imagine a new type of transmission to combine the two. I don't get onto the forums much, so if anyone wants, they can email me at thundersalmon@hotmail.com and share some thoughts.