Bus With Built-In Flywheel

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28530, 8 March 1958, Page 4

Bus With Built-In Flywheel

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON. March 6.

Birmingham may have a bus with a built-in flywheel running by the end of th is . year, says the annual report of the National Research Development Corporation. This is an explanation of the principles of the new flywheel type of transmission: When the vehicle is stopped by its brakes all the energy it possesses is lost; out when the flywheel is associated with the transmission- much of the energy of the bus’s motion can be imparted to it Therefore, as the bus slows down, the flywheel speeds up. The advantage comes when the bus starts again. Energy from the whirling flywheel can be used to take much of the load off the engine.

In Birmingham the flywheel is being fitted into a normal bus with a normal engine. Only the gearbox and transmission are being altered. Early results are “extremely encouraging” and fuel saving may be as high as 15 per cent.

The flywheel is two feet in diameter and weighs 2101 b. The principle it uses could be helpful to any kind of stop-and-go mechanism.