Did you guys ever see the air car on BBC?

[yurbud]

It runs on compressed air and has roughly the same range as an electric but without the eventuall problem of disposing of batteries (probably weighs less as a result too).


I check their website from time to time, but there are no North American distributors yet.

http://www.theaircar.com/models.html

[CJCRANE]

1. For a split second I thought you meant a flying car!

But these ones look cute.

[yurbud]

8. You mean this flying car?

http://www.moller.com/skycar/

[CJCRANE]

9. Now THAT's what I call a pocket rocket!

[Warpy]

2. I use an electric moped for most small trips

but will be very glad when these little things hit the market. They'll be ideal for people like me who live in the inner city and make mostly short trips.

Yes, it takes electricity from dubious sources to run the compressors that deliver the air charge. Hey, nothing is gonna be perfect.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Wind turbines would be perfect for compressing air

And no electricity involved at all!

[yurbud]

7. yep, generate your own.

[MrMonk]

11. Can wind turbines compress air to over 300 atm?

Because that's the air pressure that the car is designed around.

[Canuckistanian]

12. If a motor can do it, a wind turbine can

Some home turbines are capable of generating many kW of power.

[BR_Parkway]

20. So if you mount a small turbine where today's radiator would be

and geared it correctly, the air hitting the front of the vehicle as you zip down the road at highway speeds could turn the turbine enough to compress the air you need to power this thing? (Obviously, I'm not an engineer).

Is that possible? How frickin awesome would that be.

[phantom power]

23. That would be a perpetual motion machine :-)

[Salviati]

13. Why not, you just need to change the gear ratio on your pump...

and there'd be no problem...

[Dead_Parrot]

14. Certainly, in theory...

...rig up the turbine shaft to the compressor via a CVT gearbox - you'd get lots of low pressure air, then decreasing quantities at higher pressure. The only limit would be set by how high a gearing you could get out of the CVT.

[MrMonk]

15. D'oh!

I should have seen that.

[BR_Parkway]

26. non engineer question of the day - what's a CVT gearbox?

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Continuously Variable Transmission

so that different turbine speeds can all produce the same output rotor speed.

[Dead_Parrot]

28. Or conversly...

The same turbine speed can produce different rotor speeds, with different torque (case in point) :)

[yurbud]

5. slap some solar cells on your roof and drive with a clear conscience

this would then be the only true zero pollution vehicle.

In fact, it filters the air as it sucks it in, so it actually cleans the air.

[ClayZ]

3. Wow! I want one!

:kick:

[yurbud]

6. got to find someone with money to buy dealership

[RufusEarl]

10. Put me down for two!

[OneBlueSky]

16. one for each foot? . . . :)

just kidding . . . if they were available, I'd buy one myself . . . almost all my driving is short, local trips, so this would be a perfect alternative for me . . .

[rfkrfk]

17. this is a scam

range is three miles

sorry folks, this is rubbish

[Dogmudgeon]

18. I'd like to see some proof-of-concept, either way

The web site is basically a brochure in HTML form.

The idea seems sound, but so do a lot of ideas that turn out to be bad.

Any more on the Air Car?

--p!

[One_Life_To_Give]

19. Posts on usenet date from 99

Six years is a long time to not get any production going in any major market.
And IIRC the thermodynamics around the "engine/compressor" reak of snake oil.

[yurbud]

21. internal combustion creates pressure with heat--this just stores pressure

instead of fuel.

[yurbud]

22. BBC stories--they have video links too (they took test drives)

although the most recent is from 2002. I suspect the delay has as much to do with the psychological tipping point on the price of gas in the public perception as it does with the technology or business.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2281011.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/992431.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_988000/988265.stm

The have press releases on their page, and you can see who is doing the technical work:

http://www.theaircar.com/

[IDemo]

24. Somebody, anybody; show me evidence of a viable Air-Car

That would be: a vehicle 'powered' by compressed air that can achieve even minimal requirements for a commuter vehicle. Does Guy Negre's creation have a round-trip capability of, say, twenty miles, a fairly moderate commute by today's standards?

Does a large psi (pounds per square inch) figure directly equate to a large work output? No.

Would the energy used to compress air to 3000 lbs./psi plus be better spent in the direct charge of existing Lithium-ion batteries?

Guy's "Air Cars" are little more than children's toys until some verifiable information proves otherwise.

[yurbud]

25. Did you read the BBC stories?

Or watch the video?

http://www.motormdi.com/bbc.avi