Gyrobus Bashny.Net

The concept of the bus, driven flywheel, was developed by the Swiss company Oerlikon (Oerlikon) in the 1940s. Gyrobus was developed as an alternative to the battery bus, which was conceived as an alternative to trolley buses on the routes where the construction of a contact network was not justified.
The first demonstration Gyrobus trip (with the carriage of passengers) were held in 1950. For four more years of the demonstration trip arranged in different cities.
Battery energy is Gyrobus flywheel (weighing 1.5 - 3 tons), which accelerates to three thousand rpm electric motor.



All the matter is a significant advantage of this design. Firstly, it is almost silent, second is much more economical than conventional internal combustion engine, in this form of transport Third environmentally friendly, and in the fourth avoids the contact network and rails like on the trolley buses and trams.
The electric motor accelerates the flywheel energy received three short rods (three-phase motor has been) installed on the roof Gyrobus. Motor includes only sporadically. To this end, along the route of Gyrobus were equipped with "filling station" (usually on some stations). On these points the rod Gyrobus rose and touched the stop pins mounted on a three-phase mains. After the dissolution of the flywheel to the desired RPM rod fell, the engine is stopped, and Gyrobus followed until the next "refueling".



Cruising on one tank about 6 km, but for provisioning system reliability Gyrobus refueled every 2km path. With this setting Gyrobus accelerated to 50-60km / h. Brakes were also here electrical energy from braking allowed flywheel whirl even longer ie there has been a recovery. "Filling" Gyrobus takes 30 seconds to 3 minutes. To reduce the charging time line voltage was raised from an initial 380 volts to 500.
Most tin is that in a medium-sized three-ton flywheel Gyrobus applied linear velocity of the rim which reaches 900 km / h
Photo: chassis Gyrobus



Only 3 countries Gyrobus actually used on passenger routes. This is Switzerland, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Belgium.



Advantages:
Quiet operation
Environmentally friendly
Does not require continuous contact network (as opposed to the trolley)
The flexibility to change the route network if necessary.
Disadvantages
A lot of weight - Gyrobus intended to transport 20 people 20 kilometers, must have a flywheel weighing 3 tons
Rotating at a speed of 3000 rpm flywheel requires special security measures (linear velocity of the rim of the flywheel reaches 900 kilometers per hour)
Gyrobus difficult to manage, as it has the properties of a gyroscope flywheel (seeks to maintain constant position in space).



Gyrobus century was short-lived - in the 60s all systems girobusnogo transport were closed. Gyrobus G3 - the world's only surviving Gyrobus. Stored in the Flemish museum trams and buses in Antwerp.



Author: avtobusniki

--img8--