Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Nov 6

There is talk of another attempt to beat the land speed record.

A British team have come up with a car that has the potential to break the current land speed record of 763 miles per hour, held since 1997 by the Thrust SSC (super-sonic car).  And by some way.

The Bloodhound SSC:
Their new vehicle will apparently cover the length of a soccer pitch in the blink of an eye - literally. In one sixth of a second it would have travelled the entire distance at 1.4 times the speed of sound, and it would only take 34 seconds to travel 10 miles…..

Made from carbon fiber and precision made titanium parts, this vehicle will be assisted by not only a Typhoon jet engine, but also a Falcon Solid-Fuel rocket engine and a V12 racing engine.  The jet engine fires first getting the vehicle up to 100mph in 5 seconds, then the rocket engine takes over, powering from 300mph to over 1000mph.

It would have hit the speed of sound at 761mph, so there would have been an ear-shattering sonic boom as the car just kept on accelerating.

After having only traveled just over 1 mile, the record will have been broken and the vehicle will be coming to a stop, with the engines cut, the brakes deployed and the parachute inflated.

Why Do This? 
If successful, this record will also have overtaken the low-altitude flight speed record too - which currently stands at 994mph.

Out of the 109 years the land speed record has been contested, it has been held by the British for 65 of those.

Due to the immense forces of the speed and acceleration, the vehicle needs to withstand more pressure than a submarine - requiring the protection from forces of around 12 tonnes per square meter.  The wheels will be turning a over 10,500 revolutions per minute creating a g-force of around 50,000 times that of gravity.

When Will It Happen? 
Needless to say, the construction of such a precise machine has yet to be authorised, but if allowed, the crew are hoping to begin work next year (2009) and they hope for a world record attempt by 2011.

Who is crazy enough to drive the super sonic machine?  Who has the experience to handle such tough conditions?  Why, Andy Green - the RAF pilot who currently holds the land speed world record of course!

To see The Guardians computer generated video of the Bloodhound in action, go to their site.

posted by admin on Sep 13

Powered by a Hydrogen fuel cell - meet the new Ford Edge.

There is another car on the road that runs off of the same element that keeps the sun shining. So far though, it has only been let out for testing, but the insight is something to really consider.

Without the cylinders and pumps of standard fuel cars, this one is silent. And without the burning of fossil fuels either: this one leaves only water behind - pure enough to drink if you wanted to try it!

Is is truly an Eco Vehicle?
No, not yet. Like all electric and hybrid cars, it is still reliant on fossil fuels and therefore still emits huge amounts of carbon waste at somewhere along the production line. But it opens up hope for the future.

Although it is currently as heavy as some of the larger cars already on the road and still pollutes the atmosphere like all other road users, Ford are looking to the next decade to really make the savings. Apparently, they say, there will be a chain of nuclear power stations creating pollution-free hydrogen that they can use to power their Edge.

10 years is a long time away, but then, it will take that long to build up all the ‘hydrogen service stations’ along interstates and in superstore car parks. You’ll need them, as with a driving range of only 100 miles (225 with over night charging with a lithium-ion battery) you won’t be driving to your destination, you will be driving to the next top-up point!

It seems that some states in the US are already considering this as a viable method, and the state of California has started creating a ‘hydrogen highway’ between it’s 2 main towns to get things started.  But we are still quite some way from this becoming ‘everyday’.

The Future:
Well, thanks to the record-breaking Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 - which last year (2007) broke the land speed record for a fuel-celled car - they are not letting time or the shortage of fuel get in their way.  Other manufacturers are also in the race to designed the first alternate fuel vehicle for the masses, like BMW.

However, Ford have already started making further improvements and obviously the alternative fuel car that we see in 10 years time on the roads will probably be nothing like the one we see today.   It wasn’t long ago that the first fuel cell ‘car’ was pulling a trailer of hydrogen to gets it’s energy!!!!

Ideas change, technologies change, consumer demands change - but I’m sure that fossils fuels will run out before long, leaving us little choice about hydrogen (and nuclear) as the source of our energy.

Source: The Sunday Times
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posted by admin on Jul 27

I found a new club that is VERY exclusive…….

It’s not altogether eco-friendly either - but WOW - what a club to be a member of in my book!! 

I absolutely love traveling - however, I am very, very, very short of the membership criteria - about 75 countries short to be honest!

How Do You Join?
Well - as it’s title suggests - you need to have visited 100 countries or more!  In addition there is a Silver Membership for 150+ and Gold Membership for and amazing 250+ countries visited!

The special award for visiting over 300+ countries went to a Mrs C Kloner from NY this year!!!!  Well done to her…..

In perspective - there are 6 ‘countries’ in North America (Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Prince Edward Islands, St Pierre + Miquelon and the US itself) only 7 in Central America, 13 in South America and 29 in the Caribbean - so even if you went to them all, you would still be 45 countries short!!!  Europe has 67 in total - so a train ride around that continent will top up your numbers……

Why??
Well, the club first started in Los Angeles in 1954 by a travel group and has grown in leaps and bounds ever since - there are now 317 currently listed on the site and thousands of members.

The club holds meeting across the globe as discusses all sorts of travel-related topics and locations, and has much information on their site to help with information and maps for all the countries they list as being ‘valid’.

If you have only been to 75 countries - don’t worry!  They will let you attend any of their meetings that haven’t been ’sold out’ to full members!!

Are You Over 100+ Countries???
After filling out their membership form, and proving your claim, you only need to pay $100 to join and $50 yearly dues thereafter ($60 if non-US). Or just use their site to read up about countries: Travelers Century Club

So, all I need to do is travel to another 50 countries and I might got to sit in on the next meeting!!!

How about you??

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posted by admin on Jul 11

An electric car that doesn’t look like an iron!

At last - there is a car coming on the market that is not only electric, but that looks great too.  It might be slightly more expensive than the normal chug-a-long weirdly-shaped earlier versions like the tiny Tango that stars like George Clooney are currently driving!

He deserves the roadster!  Both have 0-60 in under 4 seconds - and this beauty can travel 220 miles per charge - thats less than 2 cents per mile and the equvalent of 256 miles per gallon!!!

There are still issues about whether electric cars are more environmentally friendly than gasoline driven motors - but when you are driving the Tesla through town at those mileage prices you won’t be mocked by all and sundry!!!

With it’s great photo on Tesla Motors home page and plenty of available facts to interest you and your wallet - you would be hard pushed to find anything wrong with it.  The vehicle meets all the necessary Department of Transportation requirements for insurance and registration, and even connects to your iPod and is Blue-tooth enabled.

What are the benefits of driving an electric car?
There are many according to Tesla: ‘reduced dependence on foreign oil, zero emissions, and a cost of less than two cents per mile driven (using off-peak charging rates with a time-of-use meter. Many areas also offer carpool lane access and/or special parking privileges for electric cars. Check with your local DMV for details’.

The EV is claimed to be a more environmentally friendly transportation solution than an ethanol-powered or fuel-cell powered motor - quite simply they cost less per mile to drive, they also use less fuel per mile driven - also producing less pollution per mile driven.

There is also the concern that electric vehicles move pollution to another location - ie - the factory burning the fossil fuels to create the electricity in the first place - but Tesla Motors have the answer: ’Most electric power generation in the United States does not use oil. Coal, hydro, nuclear, solar, and natural gas are typical sources for generating electricity.’ 

Added to the fact that an electric car is far more efficient than a gasoline car, and they add that ‘a battery electric car like the Tesla Roadster is able to put more than 80 percent of the energy it consumes to use in moving the car down the road.’

Need to know more?
Read up on their FAQ section yourself, and check out their related pages and servicing comments if you are interested. 
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posted by admin on Jul 1

Sat Nav has brought bridges and power cables to destruction!!

Apparently there has been a huge increase in damage to bridges and other structures in town and villages due to van and lorry drivers following their sat nav instructions rather than common sense!

The New Sign. 
The final images of these new signs (as if we didn’t have enough already) are in place for the Dept of Transport - who hope the image will be easily understood by drivers with ‘a weak grasp of english’.  The most likely sign is simply a lorry in profile with a red line through it - but if the drivers or great big lorries can’t see that tiny, low-arched brick-built bridge in front of them in the first place - what do they care about the latest sign???

Apparently inappropriate routing by sat nav is very common these days, as there are huge numbers of drivers either unknowingly or to save money, using software designed for cars when driving larger vans and lorries - which of course cannot use many of the same routes.

Some drivers seemingly follow the sat nav regardless of common sense or prevailing circumstances and are pulling down power lines, hedges, walls and bridges all over the UK.

What’s The Damage? 
Network Rail reports damages of around £15 million to their low or narrow bridges - with the overall number of incidents more than doubling over the past 10 years. 

Absurdly there has also been a huge and dangerous increase in the numbers of drivers who actually drive up the train track itself rather than the road just after the crossing that the sat nav directed them into!!!!!!  This recent invention is surely available to the wrong kind of people!!!

Drivers are apparently also being distracted from driving while typing in destinations etc, and the Ministry of Transport are trying to encourage lorry drivers from national companies to take sat nav training before using the software.

Whatever next…...