Gyrobus: The Incredible 1950s Flywheel Powered Bus

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[davidslate]

I remember Adam Savage from Mythbusters doing an experiment with flywheels. He said it was one of the only times he was truly terrified of an experiment. It is incredible the potential energy a flywheel can store up.

[thespacewarlock]

The modern alternative to flywheels I've seen in use is trams and buses powered by supercapacitor banks. They have a very similar operation where the vehicle recharges at every stop, but it's most likely more reliable since there are no moving parts required in the storage of the electricity. I've seen them in Spain in Seville where the trams have retractable booms to recharge at different stops.

[rodchallis]

Those of us who worked in stamping plants in the automotive industry are familiar with flywheels on top of the mechanical presses. They certainly have their utility. I think of them as a "capacitor" for kinetic energy.

[grahampickering]

In the UK, there's a rail vehicle (class 139) that uses flywheel technology and has been running for a few years now, mainly between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town in the West Midlands

[ignitionfrn]

3:15 - Chapter 1 - What is a flywheel ?
5:00 - Chapter 2 - Origins of the gyrobus
7:45 - Chapter 3 - Commercial service begins
10:40 - Chapter 4 - Why it all went wrong
13:35 - Chapter 5 - The future of the flywheel

[nathansavage]

I still think that trolley cables and battery backups are nearly a perfect solution. All we need to overcome is government inertia. (two drums and a cymbal fall off a cliff)

[justuseodysee]

With modern materials saving some weight and regenerative breaking this could be a banger on short routes within cities

[ikocheratcr]

Fly wheel are used to store energy for UPS systems, the amount of energy you put there is insane for its little volume. They use magnetic bearings and are under vacuum.

[davehertle]

I am 75 and I remember as a 9 year old reading an article in a Mechanics Illustrated type of magazine a report of flywheel buses being used in Europe. The flywheels were paired with a small engine that continually added to the rpms. Another transmission linked the flywheel to the wheels. They even used regenerative braking to return inertia of motion back to the flywheel while braking. One detail that I recall was that at the end of the day, the flywheel continued to spin within the vacuum chamber holding it and enough rpm remained the following mornings to start the engine.

[bigisland]

Rode in one a while ago. Used to ride this bus type to school. Most were trolleys with overhead wires. The interiors were of really high quality stainless steel grabrails, seat frames, linoleum floors. Every detail was machined cast pieces and designed beautifully. The suspension was loud because of the absence of a running diesel. Most had a backup diesel...for emergencies.
MF Oerlikon engineered anti aircraft canons and paks that won WW2

[mrivantchernegovski]

Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon also make some of the greatest anti aircraft/tank guns that are still in use today, and they made thousands of guns for mobile troops, Anti aircraft, ship guns for protection etc and are world known for their great quality

[KrnicDragon]

Back in the good ole days of kinder eggs when you actually got a toy you would have to piece together by hand, one of my faves was this little mini bike, it used a small flywheel to store energy when you gave it a quick “yeet” across the floor, it also kept the bike from falling over acting as a gyro as well. I always had a slight fascination with gyros for some odd reason.

[AndrewMalkin]

This is pretty cool. The Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid uses a similar flywheel concept for its hybridization.

[bas]

Gyrobus sounds like the name of a food truck that serves Greek food.

[Cheiff]

If this came out or if I knew about this 2 years ago ! I would have done a college project on this ! Simon is such a great example of how to make a presentation, and entertaining. Such clear words and good pace across different sections! Love it

[benjaminepstein]

Years ago, my dad told me about a bus that used a flywheel in the floor to help with braking and then to assist getting the bus going again. I think he said it was Italian. I don't know if he might have been talking about this one, but in any case thank you for making this video!

[alexinnewwest]

Video suggestion,

How about the Canadian pacific railroad.
Harder to build then the American transcontinental railroad and it unified a country

[BabyMakR]

A few years ago I was working in a warehouse/freight terminal, there were something like 50 forklifts moving at anyone time and someone came to work one day talking about how someone was inventing a compressed air powered forklift. My initial thought was "Yeh, that'll fly like a lead balloon" (This was before Mythbusters...) but they explained that most places that use forklifts already have a place put aside for LPG gas bottles and the bottles of compressed air would be the same, all they would need was an air compressor to fill them and one person to fill the empty bottles. Each FLT would have several bottles with one kept in reserve so that if you ran out of air in the middle of something you could turn the last bottle on to finish, and go to the refill station to get new ones. Something that even LPG ones couldn't have.

The article, it was in a magazine, showed that, there is a lot of waste for a company because an LPG bottle would rarely be swapped when completely empty, and any gas left in when refilling was not taken into account when the company doing the refilling was charging you. However, with compressed air, it doesn't matter if the tank is still 50% full. It just means it takes less air to fill it.

We never got any though. Some were replaced with electric ones, and they were alright. The main problem was, if someone forgot to recharge it overnight and you get in the next day and see it not charged, you're boned, whereas an air powered one, it's just a matter of swapping the bottles.

[petersmith]

8 yrs ago, I worked with a large, famous company developing exactly this. The difference being that a gyro was retrofitted to a standard bus. Smaller lighter but spinning much faster.

[TrainfanJanathan]

"Why needs like 12 cards?"
Well, as an American school bus driver, I need a CDL of at least class B (I have class A), with Passenger school bus and Air brakes endorsements (I have all endorsements except hazamat), _then_ you need an S card, which proves you're legally allowed to drive a school bus, _then_ you need a physical card, which proves you passed a DOT physical, _then_ you need a "long form, " which has your entire medical history, _then_ you need a certificate of completion, which proves you know what child abuse is and how to report it.

I also have a debit card, insurance card, GIANT bonus card, Autozone card, SSN card, and I.D. card for work, and my parents' credit cards (for grocery shopping).

And yes, carrying all that paper work make it look like there's a huge lump in my leg.🤣