Let's take another jump into the future, where the idea of what a motorcycle is, or could be, is expanded beyond the current concepts. Like the Aerofex ducted fan hovercraft, does a motorcycle have to be planted on the ground and rolling on wheels to be exciting? And what about racing? Why not low altitude racing with some of the the freedom of flying? Want to be clean and green? OK, toss that in, too. What do you have with all of that? Rail Racers!
Stefan Hermann from Germany sent me a note about the design project he created for his degree in industrial design. The whole thing just made me smile as I looked at it because he took the idea of electric racers, launched it off the ground, then gave it some of the freedom of flying and that's the key. The racers are electric but they get their power from the overhead raceway, they can fly free for a short while on capacitor power but at reduced performance until they again touch the track for full power, so the racers can jostle for position and fly free for a bit, but go too long off the raceway and you'll need to fly down for a landing and lose the race.
The race tracks can be set up in places where you couldn't normally build a track of any sort, you just need a structure to suspend it, maybe even temporarily, run the race and remove it. The electricity, in Stefan's design, comes from all of the usual eco-sources, like windmills, hydropower and solar panels so it keeps it ecologically friendly.
Is the design practical? We can debate those possibilities and problems, but until the racers themselves are proven to work, the rest of the plan is just a dream, but if they do work, whoa!
Stefan has come up with a wide range of designs for an array of different items, the rail racers are the most ambitious and I think, show a nice out of the box "fringe of possibility" thinking that may, in the future, be perfectly within the realm of accepted engineering. He's on the lookout for new projects and interesting people to work with, too, so if you need a designer with some very interesting ideas, Stefan has a portfolio you may want to look at.
Nice work, Stefan!
Link: Stefan Hermann
Pat says
What completes the circuit? Maybe there could be a giant lightning bolt arc to ground out the bottom of the racer
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
I don’t know the details of the recharge system, perhaps Stefan doesn’t have them all worked out yet, either, but Lockheed Martin just tested a system for aerial refueling using a laser which is also pretty “out there” so maybe this could work, too.
Will@FluxAuto says
The power transfer to the racers will be done wirelessly using inductive charging through an alternating current (AC) system. The original concept was pioneered by Nikolai Tesla when he was first experimenting with AC. His vision was to provide wireless energy to the whole world from his laboratory. The best way to think about it is picturing two electromagnet coils. If you run current through one of the coils, it produces a magnetic field. When you pulse the current, the magnetic field is constantly expanding and collapsing. Stick the second coil somewhere in this field and you essentially get reverse electromagnetism. The coil converts the pulsing magnetic energy into current at a different location without an actual wire connecting the two coils. This technology is what is used in the wireless charge mats that you can get for smart phones and it’s also being developed for charging electric vehicles.
Read more about it on HowStuffWorks.com:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/wireless-power.htm
The Oatmeal also has a wonderful infographic on Nikolai Tesla and his experiments with alternating current:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
Thanks, Will. Hadn’t thought about the charge mats. Makes sense.
dwolvin says
Taken as an out-there imagination study, I like it! Practical; No. But give it fifteen years and I bet it would be doable. Then you just need to get a bunch of fans of the Wipeout series of racing games and you are set.
Heh- Big-O! (watched that as a kid)
B50 Jim says
Pat makes a valid point — the racers seem to operate on the trolley principle with a means of making electrical contact with the rail, and they would need a path to ground. Numbers 7 and 11 seem to have dangling “tails” that could drag on a ground conductor (they can’t simply touch the ground; they require good electrical contact) — but this could get tricky as other racers tangle with the tail.
But that’s not the point here — it demonstrates the kind of way-out-of-the-box thinking we’ll need to carry us further into the high-tech 21st century and maintain a high standard of living for more people. Rail racers might never happen, but the imaginative flights that dreamed it up in the first place will bring us solutions to problems we don’t yet know we have.
MacKenzie says
I seem to remember (back when I was working for a living) putting in a “few” hours on a film that featured something like this: Star Wars Episode II, I think it was called. Pod racing, anyone? Oh ….. and how about Harry and his broom?
Mike
MacKenzie says
Oooops! Senior moment – make that Star Wars Episode I ……..
Mike
EMC2 says
Those designs actually remind me of the vehicles that were in Slipsream 5000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_5000
WillyP says
I remember that game, it was good for it’s day.
Kai says
I love it, the practical electrical problems have already been mentioned, but this is exactly the kind of imagination I wish more people had or could express. Good on ya Stefan!
Wave says
I love the fact that the guy with the enclosed cockpit is shown wearing motorcycle gear, whilst the lady with the open motorcycle-style machine is wearing a tank top and leather gloves.
Rob says
Is over taking an option when your locked onto a rail?
Wiregrass Steve says
I’m still waiting on my flying car that was all the talk in the sixties.
lloeb says
Wouldn’t that be a good solution to range problems of electric vehicules?? We already have a complex and big infrastructure in place (HV power lines) or we could build powered roads…
B50 Jim says
We did it 100 years ago; it was called “interurban light rail” or trolleys. Passengers boarded the trolley and were whisked to their destination Between cities, speeds ranged from 60 mph for the heavier cars to 90 for the lightweight cars. Housewives regularly went shopping in a city 40 miles away and got home to prepare lunch for the kids. In the cities, electric buses took power from twin overhead lines. private vehicles might pose some problems in logistics, but it’s a good idea.
todd says
My father showed me a old (circa 1903) black and white photograph of an intersection in Oakland. There were enough rail/bus power lines over the street that a bird would have a hard time coming in for a landing. It’s not necessarily something I’d want to see every day.
-todd
Thure says
Looking at those pics, it looked like some video game I could download to my new android tablet. So a little disappointed when it was just another Sci-fi fantasy. Looks like a really cool concept. Tesla was working on wireless power transmission, maybe it could work.
robert says
reminds me a little of a ps1 game used to play, called jet moto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_Moto
Matt "Hypemann" Herrmann says
Powering electric vehicles with rails is a great idea, the ability to leave that rail for short periods of time is also an awesome idea. It would be straightforward enough to retrofit our highways with such a setup as this.
And if someone were to develop an electric retrofit for gasoline vehicles, then all our cool old cars would suddenly be “cleaner!”
Thanks for getting the creativity flowing with this post!