DOCSLIB.ORG

Hovercraft Technology Taking Us Back to the Future Contitech Aids Griffon Hoverwork’S Pursuit of Awesomeness Erik Schmidt, Assistant Editor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Hovercraft Technology Taking Us Back to the Future Contitech Aids Griffon Hoverwork’S Pursuit of Awesomeness Erik Schmidt, Assistant Editor POWER PLAY Hovercraft Technology Taking Us Back to the Future ContiTech aids Griffon Hoverwork’s pursuit of awesomeness Erik Schmidt, Assistant Editor There are few things in this world that elicit such a gleeful, childlike sense of wonder as does the word “hoverboard”. I mean, regular skateboarding is already “extreme” enough to merit a spotlight at the radically named X Games — now imagine taking off the wheels and the bearings and swapping them out for the good old fashioned reliability of unexplainable floating magic. Plus, the hoverboard adheres to one of the infallible laws of the universe: If Marty McFly did it, then it’s probably pretty cool. out the world as specialized transports achieve a low center of gravity,” said Se- Unfortunately, despite mean spirit- in disaster relief, coast guard, military lina Kefford, marketing manager and ed lies perpetrated by “Back to the Fu- and survey applications. Very large sales support at Griffon Hoverwork. “At ture” director Robert Zemeckis, hov- versions have been used to transport the same time, we use the largest pos- erboards don’t exist. Not in the 1980s hundreds of people and vehicles across sible diameter propeller, because they and not now. Some companies — most the English Channel, while others have turn more slowly and are quieter than recently Lexus in June — have tried military applications used to transport smaller ones. With a low engine, but a their hand at producing an honest- tanks, soldiers and large equipment in large diameter propeller, it requires a to-goodness levitating transportation hostile environments and terrain. long belt to get from one to the other.” device, but every attempt has been as One of the premier hovercraft man- The Synchrochain Carbon is a poly- sad and unfulfilling as Sisyphus trying ufacturers in the world is Griffon Hov- urethane timing belt with carbon to push that infernal boulder to the top erwork, a British company founded in tensile member from ContiTech. The of the hill. 1976 that produces hovercrafts with heart of the belt is the carbon tensile (And let me stop you right now be- marine diesel engines. member, which helps reduce stretch- fore you ask: Those self-balancing, Griffon recently designed two new ing at high tension. This feature in two-wheel scooters libelously calling hovercrafts that will be used as part of combination with hard teeth made of themselves hoverboards don’t count. a ferry service from Portsmouth, Eng- polyurethane reduces the risk of tooth Shame on all of you. Somewhere in Hill land to the Isle of Wight. Both crafts skipping significantly. Valley Doc Brown is rolling over in his use Synchrochain Carbon timing belts As Marty might say: Whoa, this is grave). from the ContiTech Power Transmis- heavy. But I have a silver lining for you: sion Group. A 5,502 mm long, 220 mm Perhaps the craziest part in all of While hoverboards don’t exist, hover- wide Synchrochain Carbon connects this — way stranger than the fact there crafts are very, very real and, conse- the main shaft with the two-meter have been air-cushion vehicles ca- quently, very, very awesome. high propeller, while a 4,956 mm long, pable of zipping over land, water mud In fact — and this is a true “Great 60 mm wide timing belt of the same and ice with equal efficiency since Scott!” realization — they’ve been in type connects the main shaft with the before the Internet was a thing — is commercial use longer than Michael J. fan, which has a diameter of about half that the CEO of Griffon Hoverwork is Fox has been alive. a meter. These are the longest endless named Biff Tannen. The modern day hovercraft was ac- polyurethane belts that have ever been OK, I made that last part up. tually developed way back in the 1950s made to date, according to a press re- But honestly, it would have made a by a British mechanical engineer lease from ContiTech. whole lot of sense if it was true. named Sir Christopher Cockerell. “We want to install the engines in Today, hovercrafts are used through- the craft as low as possible in order to 88 Power Transmission Engineering DECEMBER 2015 WWW.POWERTRANSMISSION.COM]————.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • All the Things That Back to the Future Got Right (And Wrong)
    All the things that Back to the Future got right (and wrong) Posted 7 days ago by i100 staff in ents Upvote Wednesday 21st October 2015 marks the date that Marty McFly and Doc Brown flew through time to visit in the 1989 classic Back to the Future II. While the film, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, made many fanciful predictions which we're still waiting for, it was surprisingly correct in some aspects. Here's what it got right and what it got wrong about the world we live in, in 2015: Right Fingerprint scanners Fingerprint recognition, like that used to pay for a taxi in the film, can be found on the latest iPhones and at US passport control. Fuelling cars on rubbish While you can't exactly scavenge through a wheelie-bin and force feed it through your car's petrol cap (as Doc does to the DeLorean), using waste as a fuel - in the form of biogas, is something we use in 2015. There's even a bus in Bristol that runs entirely on human and food waste. Hoverboard transportation The kind with wheels may be banned on British streets, but inventors in the US have managed to create a real hoverboard using powerful electromagnets and a metal course. The Hendo II, fronted by renowned skateboarder Tony Hawk will be launched on Wednesday. Hands-free games A young Elijah Wood and his pal denounce Marty for using a video game that needs a handset in the film, suggesting that by 2015 hands-free computer games would be mainstream.
    [Show full text]
  • NATIVE CINEMA SHOWCASE Welcome to Native Cinema Showcase and The
    20 15 NATIVE CINEMA SHOWCASE Welcome to Native Cinema Showcase and the It is with great pleasure that we announce an exciting line up of films for our 2015 Native Cinema Showcase highlighting the past 15 years. The museum is proud to celebrate this important milestone by bringing the best of Native filmmak- ing to Santa Fe, N.M., far beyond our museum locations in Washington, D.C. and New York City. present We are pleased to offer new films and fan favorites and we hope that you will find the post-screening conversations with the filmmakers both provocative and engaging. In addition to great films selected by the NMAI’s Native Cinema Showcase team, SWAIA’s Indian Market Moving Image Classification X program continues to attract new, diverse and cutting-edge works through their annual competition. As in past years, visitors will be able to see the screenings of the Classification X winners in Narrative Short, Documentary Short, Animation Short, Experimental Short, Youth, Music Video and Feature categories during the week. The Native Cinema Showcase hosts free screenings THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL at the New Mexico History Museum and on Sat- urday night at the Santa Fe Railyard Park. We are grateful to both venues for their continued support NATIVE to bring these films to a wide audience. On behalf of the SWAIA Indian Market and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American CINEMA Indian boards and staff, thank you for joining us SHOWCASE at this year’s Native Cinema Showcase! Kevin Gover (Pawnee) Director, National Museum of the American Indian AUGUST 17–23, 2015 1 Presenting Organizations The Smithsonian’s The Southwestern Association National Museum for Indian Arts (SWAIA) and of the American Indian Santa Fe Indian Market A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational SWAIA’s mission is to bring Native arts to the world enterprise, the National Museum of the American by inspiring artistic excellence, fostering education, Indian is an active and visible component of the and creating meaningful partnerships.
    [Show full text]
  • Brands Eye Big Bucks with 'Back to the Future' Nostalgia 20 October 2015
    Brands eye big bucks with 'Back to the Future' nostalgia 20 October 2015 The dog-walking drones and flying cars of Marty Not to be outdone, Nike has also leapt—hoverboard- McFly's fictional 21st century are still the stuff of sci- like—on the "Back to the Future" memory fi in real-life 2015—but savvy brands from Pepsi to bandwagon, saying earlier this year it was releasing Toyota have rolled out gadgets and gimmicks a version of the self-lacing Nike Mag shoes that tapping into "Back to the Future" nostalgia. were featured in the movie. Details though remain sketchy. Fans of the film on Wednesday will mark "Back to the Future" Day—characters Doc Brown 'Jaws 19'? (Christopher Lloyd) and McFly (Michael J. Fox) blasted their way in the 1989 part two of the trilogy Major car manufacturers are also getting in on the to what was then the great unknown future, act. October 21, 2015. Toyota, which makes a brief appearance in the film And major companies are not missing a trick in in the form of a retro pick-up truck, has launched a taking advantage of the occasion, which will campaign linking its launch of the Mirai, a car that feature screenings of "Back to the Future: Part II" runs on hydrogen fuel cells, with the film's vision of and other events to commemorate the day. cars running on fuel cells powered by garbage. Take Pepsi. On Wednesday, it will sell limited- It even has a website (www.toyota.com/outatime/) edition "Pepsi Perfect"—McFly's soda of choice in with the words: "ON OCTOBER 21, 2015 THE the blockbuster movie series.
    [Show full text]
  • New Technologies and Their Role in Australia's Security, Cultural, Democratic, Social A
    At last – a narrative for Australia For many years we have debated where we are heading as a nation. We have been fortunate to have had a relatively prosperous and happy existence and tend to think that this is a direct result of our abundance of minerals and our agricultural production. While our prosperity has been dependent on resources it has only worked because we have been world class in our production techniques and the technology and scientific research that sits behind them. Make no mistake, Australia is not alone in having huge quantities of iron ore: Brazil has just as much and it is generally higher grade. We compete against the world for our economic success. But what of the future? We seem to have no clear narrative other than that as a small nation we must compete against the rest of the world. And the future can be frightening when one notes the way technology is utterly changing the landscape. Some of the wilder predictions suggest that by 2030, 80% of all jobs will be in firms or institutions that don’t exist now. Aviva Rutkin writing in the MIT Technology Journal1 on the jobs of the future suggested that around half of all currently existing jobs in the USA would be automated by 2030. The good news of course is that while technology is destroying jobs it is also creating jobs. Our narrative then is clear: we must pursue innovation through technology as the main contributor to our future prosperity and happiness. The new jobs generated will allow us to compete with the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Watch a Flying Hoverboard: Will We Soon Be Levitating? the Hendo Uses Magnets to Move Riders on a Cushion of Air. a Faster Versi
    Watch a Flying Hoverboard: Will We Soon Be Levitating? The Hendo uses magnets to move riders on a cushion of air. A faster version debuts in October and skate parks may follow. By Wendy Koch, National Geographic PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2015 WASHINGTON, D.C.—With a high-pitched screech, a hoverboard lifts a rider one inch off the ground, floating on a cushion of air across a copper-plated stage. The scene wasn’t as swashbuckling as Marty McFly’s spin on a floating skateboard in the 1989 movie “Back to the Future II.” But Marty’s ride—depicted as occurring in October 2015—was Hollywood fiction. This one showcased real technology. The Hendo hoverboard, which uses a new kind of magnetic levitation, or maglev, appeared at Smithsonian magazine’s “Future is Here 2015” festival that ended April 17 in the nation’s capital, along with IBM's Watson and Lockheed Martin’s Exoskeleton. Hendo is certainly not the first thing to hover. Helicopters have long done so. Bullet trains also hover, allowing them to go super fast by avoiding the friction between their wheels and the rails. China’s maglev train between Shanghai’s downtown and airport travels up to 430 kilometers (260 miles) per hour. Last month in testing, a Japanese maglev train hit a record 603 kilometers per hour. Yet the Hendo, which Time magazine hailed as one of the 25 best innovations of 2014, offers tantalizing possibilities. Unlike a train, it doesn’t follow a track, so it can float freely above any non-ferrous metal surface that creates a magnetic field.
    [Show full text]
  • Swagway, Official Sponsor for the Back in Time World Premiere, Takes Us One Step Closer to the Future of Transportation
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lauren Song Pearl PR Group Phone: C (310) 880-9297 O (310)275-3227, x107 Email: [email protected] Swagway, official sponsor for the Back in Time world premiere, takes us one step closer to the future of transportation NEW YORK, NY (October 19, 2015): You’ve seen Back to the Future’s Marty McFly get around on his futuristic hoverboard. Flash forward to 2015, where with the help of Swagway, that prediction has now somewhat become a reality. While not quite floating on air, Swagway, the hands-free smart board, glides as if one really is floating on air. Built on technology that eliminates reaction time for seamless maneuvering, the Swagway has the ability to pivot and rotate 360 degrees, while the “smart” capability makes it sense the core of the rider and adjusts according to their movement. To celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Back to the Future trilogy, filmmakers Jason Aaron, Louis Krubich and Lee Leshen are paying homage with Back in Time, a documentary which takes a look at the very real impact the Back to the Future movies have had on our culture. Complete with the original cast, including interviews with Stephen Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Michael J. Fox, the film promises to not only entertain but is “a cinematic monument to the vastness of the trilogy’s fandom.” explains Aaron. He continues, “Back to the Future is all about futuristic out of the box technology. Swagway is bringing that to the masses right now. For us to be attached to an amazing brand like Swagway, and to have them enable a New York City gala premiere for us, is an honor.” The world premiere will take place on Tuesday, October 20th, at the Sunshine Cinema in New York.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future Ii & Iii
    PARADOX BACK TO THE FUTURE II & III REVISED DRAFT 19 DECEMBER 1988 (BLUE) w/revision: 12/25/88, 1/18/89 (PINK) 1/27/89 (YELLOW) 1/11/89, 2/2/89 (GREEN) 2/8/89 (GOLDENROD) “The only thing more uncertain than the future is the past.” Soviet Proverb (Obviously, the colored-page revisions do not appear in this file. However, parts that were revised can be noted by asterisks appearing at the ends of lines, and in remarks, noting points at which scenes were either omitted or deleted.) A GENERAL NOTE ABOUT SCENE NUMBERING The scene numbering in this script contains large blocks of “reserved” numbers for the following reason: Every time we travel to a different time period (except for the 1985 prologue), the scene numbers jump to a new 3-digit number, as follows: 1 — 7: 1985 Prologue 8 — 61: 2015 201 — 238: “Biff 198" 300 — 386: 1955 501 — 578: 1888 701 — 713: 1985 This is intended to make breakdowns easier because simply by looking at a scene number, you can tell what time period we are in. FADE IN: MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE over selected footage from “Back To The Future:” including the charac ters, the DeLorean, and other pertinen t images... finally bringing us into 1 INT. McFLY GARAGE/EXT. McFLY HOUSE — DAY 1 We are recreating the closing mom ents of “Back to the Future:” The garage door opens, reve aling MARTY OUT SIDE, who enters and reacts to seeing his black Toyota truck for the first time. SUPE R TIT LE: “Saturday, Oc tober 26, 1985.
    [Show full text]
  • Defining Literature Reviews
    10 Defining Literature Reviews Cristie Cowles Charles Average Reading Time: 13 Minutes Learning Outcomes In this chapter, you'll learn the definition of a literature review understand the difference between a literature review and a traditional argumentative research paper learn how literature reviews are used in the social sciences understand the purpose of a literature review Writing in the Social Sciences 1 10.1 What's a Literature Review? To answer this question, I have to tell you a story, so stick with me. According to Marty McFly, this is a Hoverboard. Photo by Frank Schwichtenberg The straightforward answer is that a literature review is a review or synthesis of all the research published on a certain topic. But I'd rather explain it from a skateboarder's perspective: One of my favorite movie series is the 1980s classic Back to the Future trilogy where the bodacious skater Marty McFly time-travels to the future and sees the coolest thing I could imagine: a hoverboard. As a kid, I was a dabbling skateboarder at the time I saw this movie and thought if I could just have one of those rad, flying hoverboards, Writing in the Social Sciences 2 all my troubles would disappear. It was an optimistic time. Trouble is, hoverboards are really hard to make. We've already passed the year 2015 when the "Future" of Back to the Future Part 2 takes place, and guess what? No hoverboards. I know what you're thinking: you've seen a skateboard-like, two-wheeled device marketed with the name "Hoverboard" that teenagers ride around parks, sidewalks, and their parents' basements.
    [Show full text]
  • Motorized Skate Board Using Dc Motor
    MOTORIZED SKATE BOARD USING DC MOTOR Jasmeen Hussain Shaikh1, Kalpesh Ashok Borse2, Gayatri Ravindra Pawar3 Mechanical Department, Guru Gobind Singh Polytechnic (India) D. S. Welker ABSTRACT Skateboardsare the one that need to be pushed using human power i.e. using feet. Due to tiny stone’s the wheels of the skate board can damage or obstructed due to which the skateboarder can get in interesting problem. The solution achieve on this problem is that skate board are modified in hover board or motorized skate board. We have provided handle for support which have switches mounted on it. Due to this it is easier for balancing . REVIEW • The Hendo hover board, invented by Greg Henderson and launched with the help of his wife, Jill, nearly broke the Internet when it appeared in a Kickstarter video last year featuring company engineer and resident stuntman Garrett Foshay. • For the millions enthralled by the image of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly hover boarding in that far-off time of, yes, 2015, the Hendo fulfills a long-held desire. • Shane Chen, an American businessman who founded the company Inventist, has the earliest claim to inventing the self-balancing scooter deviceswegway. Chen started a Kickstarter for Hovertrax, in 2013. • In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chen voiced his frustrations regarding patent rights in China. He claimed that Solowheel, his self-balancing unicycle, was copied by other manufacturers after it appeared in Happy Show, a Chinese television show. • In August 2015, Mark Cuban announced plans to purchase the Hovertrax patents from Chen. I INTRODUCTION • Self-balancing two-wheeled board, commonly referred to as a "hover board or motorized skate board", is a type of portable, rechargeable battery-powered scooter.
    [Show full text]
  • Christmas Is a Blast! by Reg P. Wydeven December
    Christmas is a Blast! By Reg P. Wydeven December 27, 2015 In ‘Back to the Future Part II,’ Michael J. Fox resumed his role as lovable, time-traveling Marty McFly. In this chapter of the saga, Marty and Christopher Lloyd’s Dr. Emmett Brown travel to the year 2015 to try to prevent Marty’s future son from going to prison. In the film, the future is full of wonder, including flying cars, self-tying shoes and a World Series championship for the Chicago Cubs. The movie also featured hoverboards, or wheel-less skateboards that fly. Well, 2015 has come and gone, and we don’t yet have hoverboards (but at least the Cubs didn’t win the title either). While we don’t have skateboards that fly, we do have two-wheeled, self-balancing transporters. Resembling a Segway without a handle, these transporters have been dubbed “hoverboards” by the teenagers who are usually seen using them to get from hither to yonder. Like most American youth, my kids wanted one for Christmas. Like most American parents, we told them no dice. The kids argued that the hoverboards would be great for coming home from school. Much to my chagrin, I found myself yet again quoting my father by responding, “a little walking never killed anyone.” But according to the government, owning one of these hoverboards just might. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is currently investigating over 30 emergency room visits resulting from hoverboard accidents. The boards operate by the rider pivoting her feet up or down.
    [Show full text]
  • Hold on to Your Hoverboard: 'Back to the Future' Is Now (Update) 21 October 2015
    Hold on to your hoverboard: 'Back to the Future' is now (Update) 21 October 2015 Welcome to the future. October 21, 2015 is the greet collectors of DeLorean cars expected for a date "Back to the Future" professor Doc Brown and parade on Sunday. Marty McFly journey to in their time-traveling DeLorean in the second installment of the much- A documentary by Jason Aron entitled "Back in loved movie trilogy. Time" also debuts Wednesday in the United States, in which the film's stars talk about its impact on The world as imagined by director Robert popular culture. Zemeckis—with hoverboards, self-lacing sneakers and flying vehicles—seemed a long shot when In California, where the movies were filmed, some "Back to the Future Part II" came out in December 200 fans, many dressed up as Marty or Doc Brown, 1989. gathered at a Burger King fast-food restaurant where the young hero grabs onto a pick-up to Fans of the series are marking Wednesday's speed his skateboard ride to school. landmark date by celebrating some of the predictions that came true in the futuristic "Watching this movie as a kid time and time and saga—and some that didn't. time again, I've never even thought about this day in the future," gushed Toby Fulp, 38, dressed up as The films follow the time-travelling adventures of Doc. young Marty, a teenager living in small-town America in the 1980s played by Michael J. Fox. He On Saturday, "Back to the Future" buffs in sets out in a DeLorean car converted to voyage Hollywood will be able to party at the "Enchantment the space-time continuum by his eccentric inventor Under the Sea," the high school dance where friend Doc Brown.
    [Show full text]
  • Experiment on Working Model of Self Balancing Vehicle
    International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | Apr 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 EXPERIMENT ON WORKING MODEL OF SELF BALANCING VEHICLE Ashok B. Shyora1, Rishabh R. Kanthariya2, Dipesh N. Soni3, Raj C. Gangurde4 1,2,3,4UG-Students-SSASIT, Mechanical Engineering Department -----------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract- The invention discloses a small-sized self-balancing scooter. The small-sized self-balancing scooter comprises a platform, two wheels arranged on the two sides of the platform correspondingly, and a direction control rod arranged on the platform. The small-sized self-balancing scooter further comprises two pedals arranged on the outer sides of the two wheels correspondingly. The pedals are connected with the small-sized self-balancing scooter through hinges. When the small-sized self-balancing scooter is in a non-riding state, the pedals on the outer sides of the wheels can be turned and folded through the hinges, so that the dimension of the scooter in the length direction is greatly reduced. Therefore, the size of the small-sized self-balancing scooter is reduced, and the small-sized self-balancing scooter can be conveniently carried by riders. Meanwhile, tires of the small-sized self-balancing scooter are arranged in a splayed manner, so that the wheel diameter of the wheels is increased on the basis of ensuring the whole size of the scooter, and the obstacle crossing capacity of the scooter is improved. Keywords- Hoverboard, roller bearing, seat, battery, trolly I.INTRODUCTION 1.1 HISTORY With the development of science and technology, Some people think the Hover Lord invented the self people's quality of life become increasingly demanding, balancing scooter but I can only take credit for being the in order to travel more convenient, a variety of means best rider in the world and not the actual inventor.
    [Show full text]