Alternate Vehicle Designs
- Thread starter Petike
- Start date
Since this is an alternate history board, I decided to post a genuine aviation WI grounded in reality :
Do you remember Percy Pilcher, the Scottish aviation pioneer from the late 19. century ? He's famous mainly because of his advanced hang gliders, which he built at the time (another pioneer in this field was, of course, Otto Lilenthal).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Pilcher
Well, seems he also developed a fully functional steam-powered triplane in 1899 :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Pilcher#Renewal_of_interest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/percypilcher.shtml
He never flew on it, though, since he died the very day, on which he was supposed to test it. About 6 years ago, the crew from the BBC TV programme Horizon built a full-scale exact replica of the craft. The damn thing took off and had flown at least the same distance the Wright Flyer did on it's first flight in late 1903 !
I just wonder... If Pilcher was succesful... Would this really affect aviation history ? Would there be a "head start" of a few years compared to OTL aviation ? Would many early planes be powered by steam engines instead of diesel ones ? (Mind you, Pilcher's plane was a steamer...)
Do you remember Percy Pilcher, the Scottish aviation pioneer from the late 19. century ? He's famous mainly because of his advanced hang gliders, which he built at the time (another pioneer in this field was, of course, Otto Lilenthal).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Pilcher
Well, seems he also developed a fully functional steam-powered triplane in 1899 :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Pilcher#Renewal_of_interest
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/percypilcher.shtml
He never flew on it, though, since he died the very day, on which he was supposed to test it. About 6 years ago, the crew from the BBC TV programme Horizon built a full-scale exact replica of the craft. The damn thing took off and had flown at least the same distance the Wright Flyer did on it's first flight in late 1903 !
I just wonder... If Pilcher was succesful... Would this really affect aviation history ? Would there be a "head start" of a few years compared to OTL aviation ? Would many early planes be powered by steam engines instead of diesel ones ? (Mind you, Pilcher's plane was a steamer...)
Krall
Banned
Very nice, EdT!
This has reminded me that I'm meant to be drawing a plane for you for FabR. I could get something done in a couple of weeks as I've got exams for the next week or so, but I can be extremely lazy on occasion, so it might take longer for me to get anything done...
Those would be more fitting in the Alternate Weapons of War thread, IMHO. At least in the case of Gear Krieg. Crimson Skies has a lot of civilian aircraft and airships in addition to the militia and air pirate fighters, but they're usualy unnamed and lack the position of the "real stars" of the game.
Behold, the most sorry excuse for a futuristic car design in the history of man :
The Dymaxion Car from the 1930s
http://davidszondy.com/future/car/dymaxion.htm
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657686_1657677,00.html
http://users.design.ucla.edu/~djvmc/24/bucky/car.html
http://www.wisechat.com/carl/dymaxion_car.htm
http://www.maxmatic.com/Dymaxion/dymaxion.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlLZE23EJKs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhSonPwM8zE
It looks pretty cool, but was actually a load of crappy unreliable technology.
Created by Richard Buckminster Fuller, who even established a whole "franchise" titled Dymaxion back in the 30s, intended to provide highly efficient futuristic designs for everyday people... which failed miserably...
The Dymaxion Car from the 1930s
http://davidszondy.com/future/car/dymaxion.htm
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657686_1657677,00.html
http://users.design.ucla.edu/~djvmc/24/bucky/car.html
http://www.wisechat.com/carl/dymaxion_car.htm
http://www.maxmatic.com/Dymaxion/dymaxion.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlLZE23EJKs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhSonPwM8zE
It looks pretty cool, but was actually a load of crappy unreliable technology.
Created by Richard Buckminster Fuller, who even established a whole "franchise" titled Dymaxion back in the 30s, intended to provide highly efficient futuristic designs for everyday people... which failed miserably...
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Um... I wouldn't wanna drive that piece of crap in a city where the traffic is really slow-paced... If it steers ONLY by using a god-damn rudder (lol) it's gonna be next to impossible... slow traffic = low wind-speed
EDIT: lol, saw that it steers with the rear tire at low speeds.... still crap! What if a strong wind is blowing sideways when driving?
ba-dum-tsssh
EDIT: lol, saw that it steers with the rear tire at low speeds.... still crap! What if a strong wind is blowing sideways when driving?
ba-dum-tsssh
Hendryk
Banned
That would be L'Ardèche actually
Pity, it did have a nice look.
How about this present-day one-seater? It's supposed to have exceptionally good mileage.
That one-seater looks much more better. There's also a contemporary three-wheeled city scooter, the Piaggio MP3.
Anyway, here's a really promising concept from decades ago, that was used in some cars, but became abandoned due to some unpleasant performance issues :
http://davidszondy.com/future/car/jet_rover.htm
Jet-propelled cars. Well, not literal ones... But they still use a jet turbine for propulsion instead of a usual combustion engine. The few existing models with this type of engine worked pretty well, but also faced some serious, hardly solveable physics problems. More about it in the above link.
Anyway, here's a really promising concept from decades ago, that was used in some cars, but became abandoned due to some unpleasant performance issues :
http://davidszondy.com/future/car/jet_rover.htm
Jet-propelled cars. Well, not literal ones... But they still use a jet turbine for propulsion instead of a usual combustion engine. The few existing models with this type of engine worked pretty well, but also faced some serious, hardly solveable physics problems. More about it in the above link.
Hendryk
Banned
I haven't seen the Ford Nucleon mentioned in this thread yet. Ah, those days when people were actually looking forward to putting every household in charge of their own nuclear reactor...
