I think you are right about that aircraft alternator, I'll have to look into it more, It is similar to the truck alternator for sure, I am trying to consider what the differences would be.
I know stan Stan says in the first dune buggy video that he applies 5 volts and 2 amps to the alternator, that means the rotor has a resistance of 2.5 Ohms, and as far as an alternator goes for being a "12 volt" or "15 volt" or "24 volt" alternator, all I can imagine with my current understanding is that this would be the way the rotor is wound, so yes, maybe you can rewind the rotor to have a different resistance and then have different input voltage/current relationship.
I do know that Stan always seems to go up to about "5 volts" on the variac, and this is even on the schematic posted in the first post, so if he has a 12 volt or 15 volt alternator, I am not sure what the difference would be. See, the rotors magnetic field depends ONLY on the current flowing, not the voltage, so when he is sending 2 amps to the rotor,I think it gives the same magnetic field as if he was sending 2 amps at 5 volts or 2 amps at 20 volts, this may not be exactly correct, because the electrons will actually be "drifting" faster down the wire, but for designing sake, i think this is the important part.
I may go to the airport and ask some engineers about aircraft alternators, I used to work at the airport but its a small airport so I don't think i'd be lucky enough to pick up a similar ford aircraft alternator.
Thanks for pointing that picture and link out!
