360view wrote: " My mechanical engineering senior class’s assigned “capstone” project was to split into 5 person teams and design flywheel powered vehicles to transfer suitcases from passenger terminals to and from airliners."
I had a similar Mechanical Engineering senior project when I went to college. Does the name 'Oerlikon Gyrobus' ring a bell? Those were flywheel-powered city buses that came out in Switzerland around 1951. They were used many years in Europe and later in South America. I never understood why the technology never caught on.
It is worth noting that the US Federal Gov is not presently giving huge tax subsidies to
Flywheel vehicles
Compressed air vehicles.
That technology actually has another advantage:
an “electro-magnetic pulse” or EMP does not stop mechanical parts from working.
