Word: electrogyro
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...Electrogyro. Swiss designers pointed the way in the 1950s with a flywheel-powered bus called the Electrogyro, which operated in Europe and Africa for a number of years. To start up, the bus drew electricity from overhead wires to drive a combination motor-generator attached to a 3,300-lb. steel flywheel under the floor of the vehicle. When the motor had the flywheel turning at a speed of 3,000 r.p.m., the driver would break contact with the overhead wires. At this point, the motor would become a generator powered by the heavy flywheel, which would be kept spinning...
...flywheel can be kept rotating longer if its weight or its initial rate of spin-or both-is increased. Trouble is, top speed is limited by the strength of the flywheel's material. Had the Electrogyro's wheel been spun much faster centrifugal force would have ripped it apart. In the vehicles being equipped by Lockheed for San Francisco, the flywheels will be revved up to 12,000 r.p.m.-fast enough to drive a fully loaded trolleybus (80 passengers) for six miles. To keep such fast-moving machinery in one piece, say Lockheed engineers, they will...
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