Category Archives: Transportation

Aerospace Video Blog: Lift to Drag Modestly Demonstrated

This is the most awesome thing I have seen in a very very long while.

Posted in airplane, Art, Motivation, Transportation | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Why precool but not liquify – Skylon and SABRE

Well, I thought maybe I could add some content. Everybody’s heard about the British Hotol follower Skylon and its airbreathing SABRE engines. What’s special about them? My understandin’s based on this excellent document from Reaction Engines explaining why the system … Continue reading

Posted in airplane, Architecture, Design, Energy, engines, ESA, industry, Launchers, RLV:s, Suborbital, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Helo Speed Records

This is becoming an aerospace video blog. 🙂 The eighties [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba-dln366-E&feature=player_embedded] Versus the teens [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK7ktLXhq88&feature=player_embedded] Westland Lynx only reached 90 m/s while X2 is doing 130 m/s. The ability to let the rotor spin slowly since only the advancing blade … Continue reading

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Sankrithi Channels Wallis

Most people with interest in aerospace history know of Barnes Wallis’ geodetic structures, most famously used on the Vickers Wellington. He first invented them for the R100 airship, basically a weave of thin aluminum shapes going in different directions, forming … Continue reading

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Humans Fast, Machines Slow

Detach a small capsule with the humans that goes directly to the surface (with only days of life support) and leave the untended craft to do multi-pass aerobraking Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Colonization, Depot, engines, ESA, Global, industry, ISRU, JAXA, Lunar, Models, Motivation, NASA, RLV:s, Science Links, Spacecraft, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Swiss Monotracer Two-Wheel Car

If you speak german, this video is nice. They show it driving, in construction and design. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=v9-hMlN19NE&feature=related] Though it is complex, heavy at 450 kg and expensive at 62,000 euros. Uses a BMW motorcycle engine and sits two people in … Continue reading

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The Last I4

It doesn’t have the same sound as “The Last V-8” now does it? When you look at what’s happening in the world of automobiles, you get some idea of a change. It is always slow, yet I predict that when … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, Climate, Energy, Global, Homebuilt, Motivation, Science Links, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

I Have Seen The Future of Personal Transportation

And it is awesome and Japanese. Just put a person on top and raise the speed. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI06lujiD7E] [Embedding seems to have problems] http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=bI06lujiD7E

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Be Careful When Starting Large Project, Pt II

The Batillus class supertankers built in the seventies that had a larger mass (gross tonnage) than anything now were scrapped pretty soon after since they had to sit around for lack of work. The oil crisis hit at a bad … Continue reading

Posted in Architecture, industry, Transportation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Streetcars / Trams / Light Rail

They’re awesome, yet problematic. In the early 1900s, Los Angeles had an extensive streetcar and light rail network (the red and yellow cars), but it was dismantled, like in many other american cities in the thirties, forties and fifties. One … Continue reading

Posted in Energy, industry, Motivation, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments