Slashdot Mirror
Whirling Twirling Propeller Trike
hankmt writes "A student at MIT has built a tricycle that applies force to a giant rear fan, instead of directly to the wheels. The effect...well, it's best to look for yourself, but it would be pretty useful on the post-apocalyptic roads of the Australian Outback. The blades of the trike even have built in LED lights which display colored patterns...and also warn pedestrians of their impending deaths."
n/t
There would be a lot more room to ride on Multi-Use Paths...
Those crazy MIT guys are lucky that Massachusetts just made health insurance mandatory!
Trolling is a art,
From the looks of it after watching the vide, its terrible at transforming pedal energy into forward motion, and I'd really hate to see what would happen in any sort of wind. At least a "real bike" you can get off and walk. Add bird strikes to the blades, the excess width, etc., and you've got a real problem.
Unless,of course, you're Wiley Coyote, and ride it off a cliff - you could autogyro down, I guess.
Kevin Smith on Prince
This isn't science, this is technology. Very cool machine though; I especially like the complete lack of any safety measures concerning the big spinning blades! Can I hire that thing to get rid of my evil enemy Mr. Naughty?
-- Cheers!
forget it....
It should be pretty obvious that the effeciency of a propeller driven bike is way less than a bike driven by it's wheel, particularly one with multiple gear ratios. Just watch the video, the guy is pedalling pretty damn hard for not much speed (maybe he talks about that later in the video, I got bored half way through...)
I guess this proves that just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.
A One that isn't cold, is scarcely a One at all.
You know what also is funny? The way he rolls up one of his pant legs to be 'in style.' Real original, is he an MIT gangsta?
Actually, the bike pulls to the right. So by rolling up his right pant leg that side creates less drag, which helps trim the bike back to the left.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
This thing couldn't even get started on an uphill, or with more than a light breeze for a headwind. Forget climbing out of a pothole.
It's a very clever toy, nothing more.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
That thing blows.
Seriously? He rolled it up so it won't get caught in the chain.
It helps keep the pants leg from getting caught in the chain. Don't let that get in the way of your "gangsta" knowledge, however.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
This guy builds a trike with great glowing, whirling blades of death on the back and actually manages to ride it around for a while without getting shipped to Gitmo, and people just complain how it's not practical?
You people fail utterly at nerd-dom.
The Burning Man crowd likes stuff like that. It's too late for this year's Department of Mutant Vehicles registration, though.
By playa standards, this is unambitious. Check out the Neverwas Haul, a steam-powered 3-story Victorian house on wheels that moves under its own power.
Look at where the chain is... What if he hit a pebble or something and flew forward?
You noticed he's walking it?
Deleted
I once knew a pilot for parachutists and he would trim the plane so well that all he did to turn was to lean in the direction he wanted to go. I believe it was a C172 or something small like that.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
It seems like if he build a simple lightweight fan cage, he'd probably solve most of the problems with unhappy police or others. It also could save him money and trouble if he ever tips over, cuts a corner too close, hits a bird, etc. I'm sure fiberglass over foam wouldn't hold up too well to a sudden interruption.
That said, it's still pretty cool. I wonder how it compares to normal bicycle drive for efficiency.
Art maybe.
Or at least drew it first in Kiki's Delivery Service.
I'll take one
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
From the article title I was wondering what would make it Slashdot worthy. Sadly, after reading it, I confirmed that my suspicions were true - it's essentially a large fan on the back of a tricycle. Nothing groundbreaking or earth shattering about it. In fact, it is way less efficient than a normal tricycle. Also, call me crazy - but I don't feel comfortable with large unshielded fans behind my head.
Go slow, use legs.
Only old Koreans would lean to turn a C172. It's all the rage now to do it in an Antonov, n00bs maybe can get away with a Starlifter
Are these fan-driven things any better once they get going at a good speed? Compared to a traditional bike, you lose the drag of the drive train, if there is any. But the big advantage would be if you could get the wheels off the ground. But I don't see how disconnecting the chain from the wheels allows enough design freedom to improve the aerodynamics much.
Anyone see any brakes on the thing? Or does the driver just start blowing air out of their mouth forward?
-m
http://www.invisik.com
I believe the reason why he pulled his right pants leg is so that it doesn't get caught in the gears.
Already been done. Go to Hokey Spokes and take a look at the demo video.
Cool.
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
(from the video) "...and they jump out of the way even if they're 20 feet away."
That's pretty smart on their part. Pay close, careful attention to how he restrains these spinning blades: A FUCKING PIPE CLAMP.
Maybe if he's so smart with matlab, he can work out the pulling force at a few hundred RPMs on those blades, frighten himself, and put a bolt through the blade and hub shaft.
Also, the design of the frame is pretty sketchy, with no bracing; he's relying purely on the static-load-bearing capacity of the tubing and his welds. If he collides with anything, the frame is going to come apart, and he stands a good chance of getting a chromalloy chest transplant.
Please help metamoderate.
Hwever, adapting the LEDs to beanie propellors could be cool.
Have gnu, will travel.
That's no fan. Contrary to the OP's mangling of the English language, it's a propeller. At least the MITers know the diff.
The American Society of Civil Lawyers "Suing The Pants Off^w^w^w Everybody Since 1969"
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
Why is it that any douche from MIT who makes something completely, utterly useless.. gets on slashdot?
...I know I've ripped wide-ankled trousers more than once because I didn't roll them up or use clips. So yes, absolutely, it is a risk. An alternative is to tuck the trouser bottoms into your socks. I can only presume that people who don't see the need exclusively wear narrow-ankled trousers (or don't cycle much!)
Hmm, if he fully encloses the fan and adds a vacuum pump, then the fan will spin much easier and his forward speed will be pretty much the same...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
The real question: can you use it to decapitate zombies? Because if not, phbbt, don't waste my time.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
1. Propeller-powered tricycle. -DONE-
2. Button to order pizzas in an emergency. -DONE-
3. Empty Bathroom Stall internet alert system. -DONE-
4. Sledgehammer/Bowling Pin sharpener.
5. Validating/Confirming Scientology.
6. Wind Turbines for delivering green power to moon bases.
7. Candle powered gasoline pump, for pumping gas during power outages.
8. Knee pads so people can chew gum safely while they walk.
9. Submarine with a screen door.
10. Solar Powered flashlight.
11. Bathroom Webcams.
One would think that with the level of intellect those students have, they would be able to differentiate between an elementary school science project/unnecessarily hazardous/useless/pointless project and an innovative/useful project.
And people said I wasted my time in my middle school Spanish class drawing up a simpler, more efficient RTG.....
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
"Whirling Twirling Propeller sTrike"
Maybe his mom got gunned down during a meth lab robbery by the local Knitting Devils gang
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
And MA is the only state with "mandatory" health insurance.
Did you all forget about the Gossamer Albatross?
The Bigger The Headache The Bigger the Pill
"I spend a month a year working on a commercial fishing boat with a loud diesel engine, and the greatest sound in the world is to hear it turn off," says Damon Vander Lind, the creator of a soothingly quiet trike"
As opposed to a normal trike, which operates with ear-shattering volume?
-Styopa
I'm not sure if I should be impressed by a machine that replaces the simple act of directly driving the wheels via pedaling and inserts what seems to be a less efficient giant, decapitating fan blade.
dress and fashion are inherently silly no matter how you slice it. some people like playing with it, some people just wear whatever everyone else is wearing.
the "dumbasses" are the people who let it bother them to any great degree.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
I looked through the other entries besides the "winning" propeller bike, the last one being a "Dog-powered" scooter. They have a large frisky dog hooked up to it, on the side, so the driver can steer the scooter, rather than give commands to the dog. Looks ok, if we can use dogs to power sleds, then this one would do also. Only problem is when the dog goes after a cat, then you are in for a wild ride.
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.
...the Department of Defence has just announced the purchase of 10,000 tricycles of doom, to be issued to Iraqi troops without any other form of ammunition.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...can he control it with Linux?
www.purevolume.com/martyd
Uh, yeah - this was about a year of Bryan Allen, Paul, Tyler, and Parker MacCready's time before the Gossamer Condor left the ground.
Please tell me 2.0 will have a cage around the fan.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Could one upend the propeller,add a tail rotor and hope to achieve flight?
Would a more dramatic gearing be required/probable?
Was Davinci on to something?
Wouldn't it be a kick to see the inevitable extreme sports tricks attempted on one?
(Wildly dangerous for the public,it would probably be distributed as plans on the net)
Imagine this in the general publics hands and imagine the chaos and fun.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
You know what also is funny? The way he rolls up one of his pant legs to be 'in style.' Real original, is he an MIT gangsta?
You've never ridden a bike, have you? The chain is on the right side of the frame. If you commute regularly and don't roll your right pant leg up, then it will get a really nice grease stain pretty quickly. Once in a while, a leg can get caught in the chain, which very quickly ruins a pair of pants. Look around, and you'll see many bicyclists with one leg rolled up. It's not for style.
He should totally join SCUL.
Hill.
The fuel it uses is the cheeseburger you had for lunch.
+++ATH0
Why doesn't this genius invert the propeller and add a sail in front of the bike ? It would surely be even more efficient...
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
They made motor powered versions on Scrapheap Challenge a while back.
1.) Remove the wheels 2.) Attach to jon boat 3.) Haul to Everglades 4.) Advertise to eco-tourist as Everglades rickshaw 5.) Profit!!!!$$$$$!!!! PH
Wow an air driven tri-cycle thats bloody impressive... (rolleyes)
Someone get this kid a noble prize STAT!
Not by a long shot. He still needs to attach wings, a tail boom and a vertical and horizontal stabilizer. Presto Chango - the flying bicycle.
For the record that's the case with most small planes. You can get a C152 or Piper Tri-Pacer to go where you want via weightshift, if you're willing to spend some time doing it: climb/dive, turn, just fly slow so your turning radius is tighter. It does require a well-rigged aircraft, however. On one of my cross-countries in a particularly foul 152 we called Pumpkin-Butt (it had a truly horrible orange/white paint scheme from 1978) the plane, which had encountered a building during a bad landing and had been poorly repaired, continually wanted to turn left. It had elevator trim, but no rudder/aileron, so it just kept turning left. I found that by hanging a lunchbag on the right horn of the right control input, and loading it with one orange, one 6" crescent wrench, and one pair of pliers, I could trim it to fly straight for over 80 miles with only a few degrees' divergence, which I could easily counteract by leaning.
Now, the claim that a 'chute plane could do this is more impressive: most chute planes are considerably heavier. Some people use 182's, which are still pretty beefy airplanes, but most jump planes weigh well more than a ton and a little bit of weightshift isn't going to go very far. But I've read terrifying stories about aircraft crashing because of weight-shift disasters: poorly loaded I-beams shifting backwards on takeoff, leaving the airplane in an uncorrectable nose-up and stalling, or airplanes with loads of goats that get loose, let each other loose, and then begin running in groups back and forth in the plane, causing uncontrollable oscillations. (and let me tell you from personal experience, having a dog loose in an airplane when you hit any actual turbulence is an Incredibly Bad Idea. And, by 'actual turbulence' I don't mean light chop, the sort that everyone gets upset about in jets, I mean the sort of turbulence where the dog is bouncing alternately off the seats and the ceiling of the plane, which is only 'moderate' turbulence. Actual, honest-to-goodness 'severe' turbulence means the plane is no longer able to stay either wings-level or on-course, which is to say it's tumbling.)
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Granted, he should be perfectly safe (the blade will be ejected tangentally when the worm-gear gives out)... but sooner or later the angry mob is going to catch up with him.
Or something like those new vertical fans they're now selling for household use. In fact he might be able to mount 3 or 4 of those side by side without going beyond the vehicle's wheelbase width ... the engineering might get more complex but the added power and maneuverability might be worth it.
:)
Also would probably have less negative effect from headwinds.
Regardless, it's cool and I want one.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
"Gangsta style" is the most retarded thing in the world. MIT students are not retards. Therefore, the MIT student's rolled-up pants leg is not "gangsta style". QED, PWN3D.