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This is a variation on previously tried ideas. When an emergency stop is required, a castoring wheel is lowered so as to contact the road surface. The castoring wheel 'steers' the rocket so that it always thrusts against the direction of travel. The rocket itself is made up of a multitude of 'slices'
of solid fuel, divided by insulators which prevent each slice from igniting the next. When the first slice has burnt (perhaps 0.5 seconds) it enables the next to be ignited. Ignition of each slice is initiated by rotation of the castoring wheel, so that when the vehicle stops, no more braking thrust is generated.
The downside to any emergency braking device is, of course, the vehicle behind. It's no good stopping your Smart car in 10ft from 70mph if the 40 ton artic behind can't do the same!
The advantages of this system are: 1) It can be a self-contained unit which could be mounted to any vehicle, only the rocket thrust would have to be matched to the vehicle's mass. 2) It operates independently of the vehicle's stability, grip and directional control. 3) It stops operating when the vehicle comes to rest.
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Do not use at pedestrian crossings. |
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Echo.
//only the rocket thrust would have to be matched to the vehicle's mass// So no carrying extra passengers. [-] |
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//(perhaps 0.5 seconds)// A series of explosions stoping your car, a bumpy ride.- |
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Most modern family cars weigh around the 2 ton mark. The addition of four 200lb passengers is only a 20% increase, so no problems with the extra passengers. A bumpy ride is better than a crash! |
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Two tonnes is pretty close to the gross vehicle weight for my family car [checks Opel website] - correction - actually, it *is* the gross vehicle weight (-5kg), so four 100kg occupants would represent a 30% variation over the kerbweight. In a smaller family car, the percentage variation would be much greater.
So, the braking effort would vary over a range of 7.5 (driver only) to 30% (driver plus three passengers). Pretty broad range to cope with, huh? |
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sp. "castering", unless its different in Britain. |
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sp: it's (as in, "it is") |
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For my mountain bike, please. Then, I can collect scars on all sides of my body instead of the traditional places. |
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Elegant yet dangerous. Croissant. I do wonder what happens on the final rocket burn after the car has stopped though. If the rocket spins around in all directions that would be cool. |
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normzone - just make sure you do not cycle in this car's path - you would get roasted in 0.5s bursts. |
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If the rocket continued to burn after the vehicle had stopped, it would still turn to face the direction of travel. This would result in the rocket spinning as Caspian suggests. In vehicle dynamics in the UK, castor is the action of a wheel which trails its steer axis. Caster is finely ground sugar. |
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