Landshark

An anonymous reader writes "This has got to be, or will be when they actually make one, the coolest amphibious vehicle around. It's a cross between a motorcycle and a jet ski, and it seats three. It can travel at 200 mph on land and 50 mph on water. Just what you need to get you from point A to point B."

Comments

Durability?

[TamMan2000]

The combined drive system is really clever, but I wonder how it will hold up... The impeller is mounted on the drive wheel, the wheel moves over the uneven surface of the road, and adsorbs shocks from all the bumps, so what I want to know is: how the heck are you going to build impeller seals that will hold up to that and still hold a tight tolerance?

Fantasy Propulsion

[jvl001]

I don't see how a centrifugal compressor will drive this thing the way it's been illustrated. Normally a centrifugal compressor takes axial flow and turns it into radial flow. According to the website they are using it to take in water upstream of the hub and blast it out a slot at the rear. They way this thing appears to be designed they are wasting an incredible amount of energy just spinning the flow around inside the rear wheel. I hate to think what cavitation will do to this thing.

Note to landshark guys: It aint a turbine unless you're extracting power from the flow. In your case it's just a centrigual pump. Mount a forward pointing scoop that directs flow down the axis of the pump, then collect _all_ the radial flow and direct it out the exit.

PS. You are driving this thing with the equivalent of the guts of an air-raid siren. How appropriate.