h a l f b a k e r yWe have a low common denominator: 2
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Snowmobile Skis
Add snowmobile-style tracked propulsion to the back of skis | |
The snowmobile is a pretty solid invention. A couple of
steerable skis up front and a single track at the back
powered by a fairly powerful engine. For the human
occupant, there's a seat, fairing, and some controls.
Anyone venturing real distances into the wild still takes
skis as a backup
and to better access tighter or steeper
areas.
Improvement and mass production means that lithium
cells, electronic controllers and brushless DC motors are all
available to give serious power to anything you like.
So, take a pair of skis, add a miniaturized snowmobile
track to the rear of each one powered by a few hundred
watts of brushless motors. The tracks would benefit from
having each blade on a pivot so that they lay flat while
skiing forwards and unfolded when driven backward by the
motor to bite the snow. Control is by wireless triggers in
the ski-pole handles, just like electric skateboards. A
snowboard version is also available for those with
piercings/tattoos/strange hats.
Lift ticket?
https://www.gettyim...otography/660880327 We don need no steenkin lift tickets. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 08 2018]
[link]
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Sounds easier to wait until the snow melts. Can these things
be Segwified to make it harder to fall over? |
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//Segwified to make it harder to fall over?// |
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I see no reason you couldn't build a balancing algorithm in.
You'd need traction in both directions, but you could
definitely get fore/aft stability. It might be clever to split
each track into two, so you can get a little bit of skid-steer
directional control. |
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// a few hundred watts of brushless motors // |
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Tiny axial-flow gas turbines will give a much better power to weight ratio and the energy density of kerosene is way higher than batteries. |
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You just need to find a way round the FOD ingestion problem. |
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(+), but I think this dude beat you to it [link]. |
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It seems to me that there's a fundamental flaw in ski-slope
design, if an invention like this is necessary. They've clearly
build things to slope upward, whereas they should have had
them sloping downwards so gravity would do the work. |
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Somebody has to have done this before. |
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OK, somebody somewhere has to have done this
SUCCESSFULLY before. |
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// find a way round the FOD ingestion problem. // |
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Ahhh. Solid-fuel rockets. |
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//find a way round the FOD ingestion problem// |
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Tighter control of British Jet technology dissemination? More
careful guarding? Or just buy top quality British Object Debris
which is what runways should be littered with. |
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Indeed. The problem with foreign rubbish is that it is, in fact, rubbish. |
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Another woeful deficiency that, despite decades of opportunity, the EU bureaucrats have entirely failed to address. The reason there's no
Rubbish Directive is most likely that if there were minimum standards for trash and garbage the governments of several member states would cease to exist. |
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British rubbish, best in the world. I mean, what is it? Waxed
paper from some hearty cheese and pickle sandwiches?
Some recycled newspaper with a little vinegar and chip
grease residue? Maybe a brown paper bag, a little grease-
transparent from a regional pasty. Essentially a mix of
carbohydrate and hydrocarbons. Practically fuel for any
robust jet engine. It all goes wrong when you start giving
consumers miniature pressure vessels for drinks. |
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// Practically fuel for any robust jet engine. // |
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... and definitely fuel for a Gresley A4 Pacific. No FOD problems there, at least, not from anything much smaller than a full-grown Frisian cow. And even then it tends to be loud and messy, but only inconvenient. |
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The "chicken gun" test on a steam locomotive would be amusing ... even a little 0-4-0 saddle-tank shunter would be pretty much indifferent, apart from the smell of cooking chicken wafting from the smokebox. |
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