Dominic Michaelis (1938 – 22 December 2015) was an Anglo-French architect, inventor, and solar energy advocate.

Life as a solar energy advocate

Born in 1938 in Paris, Dominic Michaelis studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. His thesis, written in 1964, was on a solar house and a floating solar village. He continued at

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

studying for an MS in architectural structures and town planning. In 1974 Michaelis opened a consultancy to design solar buildings, one of which received the first joint RIBA, RICS and CIBSE award. He consulted for many known solar heated or cooled projects, being responsible for some of the early solar and low energy houses in Milton Keynes. He also built many projects abroad including neighborhoods and structures, in

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

and

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, where he built five pise walled low cost health clinics for the EU.

Solar balloon

Dominic Michaelis imagined a

hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...

flying only by solar power. He built and tested small solar balloons with a double skin envelope. The temperature differential between the skins provided lift. His son Stéphane became the first human pilot lifted by a solar tethered balloon. In 1972, Michaelis built a 240 panel, 22 meter diameter solar balloon using polyester film and aluminum honeycomb basket. Inside the solar ballon, three vertical black screens heated through the greenhouse effect and the black screens absorbed energy through the transparent polyester film. His tethered test flights showed strong thermodynamic forces. Inspired by US pioneer Tracy Barnes' first manned solar balloon flight on 1 May 1973, Michaelis designed a free flight solar balloon. The design included a double envelope; the internal layer black polyester, while the outer was transparent. He hired

Cameron Balloons Cameron Balloons is a company (law), company established in 1971 in Bristol, England, by Don Cameron (manufacturer), Don Cameron to manufacture hot air balloons. Cameron had previously, with others, constructed ten hot air balloons under t ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

to build solar balloon G-BAVU. The solar balloon's envelopes worked in tandem: transparent surface allowed air to flow in, enabling a greenhouse effect and absorbed the trapped solar radiation from the black envelope. The twin envelopes were attached to a basket carrying a gas burner. The burner eased inflation and aided launch with cloudy skies. Altitude control was achieved through opening or closing horizontal panels located at the balloon equator. The deflation was made possible by rip-stop panels at the balloon crowns. From 1976 to 1980, his balloon (aircraft registration number G-BAVU) participated in a number of hot air balloon festivals in England. Julian Nott used Dominic Michaelis's solar balloon (aircraft registration number G-BAVU) to cross the

English channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. On 22 August 1981, lifting off North West of Dover, he silently crossed the channel, landing at Tournehem-sur-la-Hem of the

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

in France. Nott used the burner once, during the landing, to arrest the descent rate. The envelope of solar balloon G-BAVU is conserved at the British Balloon Museum, a testament to its groundbreaking status in balloon travel history.

Energy innovations

An idea for a wave energy converter was formulated and patented in 1980 with engineer John Field.

Peter Rice Peter Rice may refer to; * Peter Rice (structural engineer) (1935–1992), Irish structural engineer * Peter Rice (executive) (born 1967), British film executive * Peter Rice (footballer) (born 1938), Australian rules footballer {{hndis, nam ...

a senior partner of ARUPS became interested in the project and a test was carried out at sea to validate the concept. The wave energy converter known as THE LILYPAD, is based on recovering energy from seas and oceans using flexible membranes only. It is now being developed for trials in the Mediterranean. In 1990 Michaelis developed a low cost geodesic geometry solar cooker, which cooks at over two hundred degrees Celsius. It also boils five litres of water in twenty minutes and can therefore sterilise 100 litres of water a day. In 2002 he patented the 'Energy Island' concept following a Call for Ideas by the International OTEC Association, a proposal for an offshore platform that would employ various techniques to generate renewable energy. His son Alex Michaelis continues his father's solar projects, and particularly the energy island idea.Treehugger:
/ref> Michaelis also holds patents which dispense OTEC from the cold water pipe concept, removing many environmental and economic concerns. Dominic Michaelis died on 22 December 2015 after a long battle with illness.

References

External links

Energy Island project
led by Dominic Michaelis.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaelis, Dominic British engineers 1938 births English inventors 2015 deaths Engineers from Paris Cornell University alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Aviation inventors British balloonists British architects French emigrants to the United Kingdom