Alec Cameron said the following to MIKE ROSS on the subject of
ENGINE DESIGN (21 Oct 97  08:28:04)
 MR> energy stored in a flywheel that can rotate on its own for weeks.
 AC> I just love the idea of a lot of flywheel energy storage on a motor
 AC> vehicle. "sorry I crashed the car officer, the flywheel argued with
 AC> the steering" ;-) "the flywheel bearing seized and the car body
 AC> spun about. Blast! that Pommy Newton!!"
Is that the Son of Pinto with the exploding flywheels when rear ended?
"If your moment of inertia is perpendicular to the direction of travel a
flywheel should have negligible influence on steering", says the judge.
However it will likely tend to flatten out and smooth the ride a bit.
Starting to go up or down a hill might have an influence. If twin
counter rotating flywheels are used their vectors would balance out.
Carbon fibre has a sharply defined elastic limit and in a crash the
flywheel disintegrates just like the windshield into a million little
pieces. Didn't you see that tv news clip of an F117 losing a wing tip in
an air show not that long ago? The carbon structure simply pulverized.
 Mike
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