PNEUMATIC OPTIONS

Research Library

air car research since 1979

LINKS TO WEBSITES OF ASSOCIATES, SPONSORS
AND FRIENDS OF THE AIR CAR PROJECT

http://www.cruiserart.com

• Cruiser Art features affordable art prints of nostalgic rusty old surfing cruisers pictured in an Hawaiian beach setting.  Artist Darshan Zenith is an old friend of the air car project from way back.  He has been instrumental many times in furthering the research and other goals of Air Car Access and Pneumatic Options. 

http://www.lotysz.webd.pl/pneumatic_railway.htm

• Scholar Slawomir Lotysz has authored a very interesting website on the origins of air as a transport medium.  His article covers developments worldwide in the pneumatic locomotives of the 19th century.  Mr. Lotysz has been awarded a grant to continue his research in the United States in preparation for his doctoral thesis.  A very fine work.

Robotguy's Model Air Engine Photos!

• Mike Smyth has lots of beautiful photos of an air engine he built using simple processes.  Plans are not yet available, but model engineers could just look at these pictures and go from there.  A highly recommended site if you want to start with small engine prototypes, Mike is doing more with less, and the photos clearly show every part of his engine.

CD&M Railroad

• Porter Compressed Air Locomotive #4077 (nicknamed "Hoss") was procured by the Myers family and is now in use and/or in the process of being restored.  The website has interesting pictures of how to deliver a compressed air locomotive to its new home without rails, and other steps of the restoration process.   

RexResearch.com

• REX RESEARCH (TM) was established in 1982 by Robert A. Nelson to archive and distribute hard-to-find information about "unconventional", suppressed, dormant, or emerging sciences, technologies, inventions, theories and therapies that offer real hope of liberating humanity.

Steam Engine Museum in Frankfurt, Germany

• Frankfurter Feldbahnmuseum e.V houses dozens of steam engines and one compressed air locomotive.  For more information, click on the above link to their website, or go to our Pneumatic Options museums page for photos of their air locomotive.

edie: Environmental Data Interactive Exchange

• Edie is a free, personalized, interactive news, information and communications service for water, waste and environmental professionals around the world.

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OTHER WEBSITES FOR AIR CAR RESEARCHERS

(URLs that don't begin "http://www." are spelled out completely)

Guy Negre

• An internet search for air cars will turn up hundreds of results, a large majority of which relate to Mr. Negre's air car project.  Here are some of the best sites:

• theaircar.com is the website for Moteur Developpment International (MDI), which is air car inventor Guy Negre's company.

• zevcat.com is the website for a San Francisco company that plans to market the MDI air car in the U.S.

• evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=555 links to an audio interview with Swiss engineer and San Francisco entrepreneur Jean-Pierre Maeder, one of the founders of ZEV CAT.  Includes the software needed to listen to the interview.

• cyber-media.com/aircar/images/newsweek.jpg is an article on Guy Negre's air car.

• http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/mdiaircar and http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/mdiaircar2 are online discussion groups for people who want to see Mr. Negre's air car succeed by establishing a network of enthusiasts.

Tsu-Chin Tsao

• engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2003/hybrid.htm "UCLA Study Suggests Air Hybrid Car Could Improve Fuel Efficiency," an article with information about the connection between air cars and Ford Motors.

• futurepundit.com has an article on the new compressed air hybrid car engine being developed by UCLA professor Tsu-Chin Tsao.

• seas.ucla.edu/~ttsao/index.htm is Dr. Tsao's website.

• evworld.com/databases/shownews.cfm?pageid=news190203-06 is an article on Dr. Tsao's hybrid air car.

Terry Miller

• angelfire.com/theforce/ofcompressedair is a site on the air car inventor Terry Miller, in the form of entertaining stories told about another air car advocate's experiences with Terry Miller, the father of the modern air car movement.

Cryogenic Cars

• mtsc.unt.edu/CooLN2Car.html is a site on the University of North Texas liquid nitrogen powered car.

• http://web2.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=7093 is an article about the CooLN2Car of the University of North Texas.

• aa.washington.edu/AERP/CRYOCAR/CryoCar.htm is about the University of Washington Professor Abe Hertzberg's liquid nitrogen powered car.

Energine

• energine.com is the official website for the Korean pneumatic-electric car being developed by the Energine Corporation.

• http://kn.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_
  dir/2001/08/14/200108140020.asp discusses the Korean Energine hybrid pneumatic car.

Armando Regusci

• airenergycars.com is Mr. Regusci's huge air car site.  He has been designing and building air cars and motorbikes for a long time, starting from ideas he had in the 1950s.  Mr. Regusci is a Uruguayan who now lives in Denton, Texas.  Plans can be ordered from his site.

Compressed Air Locomotives, Pneumatic Railways, Atmospheric Railways

• nymtmuseum.org/PastHeadends/Spring01/CouldaBeen_Part1.html is the first part in a two-part article on compressed air locomotives from the Journal of the New York Museum of Transportation, Headend.  The information on inventor James M. Bois and his experiment in Rochester, New York was new to me.  There is a link to the second part of the article.

• davros.org/rail/atmospheric.html is an article by Mark Brader on the pneumatic railway: compressed air locomotive without an engine, powered by air pressure supplied along the way by a continuous pipeline.  There was also the atmospheric railway: subway tunnels in which the lightweight engine-less car fit the tunnel and was pushed along by low pressure air or pulled by suction.

• http://www.uz.zgora.pl/~slotysz/pneumatic_railway.htm is an excellent article by architect Slawomir Lotysz on atmospheric and pneumatic railways.

• aeromovel.com is the official website of the Aeromovel Global Corp., a revived version of the pneumatic railway of the 1800s.  This one was patented in the 1980s, and is alive and well in Brazil and Indonesia, where it has been in operation for some years.  Invented by Oskar H. W. Coester, an aviation engineer.

• dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/locoloco.htm is an index of linked information about steam locomotives, and includes pages on the German diesel-compressed air hybrid and the Dickson Air Locomotive in Pennsylvania.

• nrhs.com/web_exclusives/fireless_cooker is a webpage by the National Railway Historical Society on fireless locomotives, that is, locomotives that are charged with steam or compressed air.

• An internet search for "compressed air locomotives" will yield many results.

This is no joke: Air Powered Lego Engines and Cars

• http://homepage3.nifty.com/mindstorms, Joe Nagata's excellent web pages of air-powered Lego cars and engines.

• physics.fsu.edu/users/rikvold/info/legocars.html is physics Prof. Rikvold's site on Lego air cars.  A movie can be downloaded showing one of the model cars in operation

• lego.com/eng is the official Lego site, which is a vast world that can be whittled down to size by going to http://search.lego.com and searching for "pneumatic."

• bricklink.com is a site for ordering Lego parts.

• Thanks to Paul Krieg, a designer of awesome air engines that can be seen on C. S. Soh's site, for information on parts suppliers.

Air Cars in General

• tcsn.net/charlied is a freeware site of programs that aid in the visualization and design of valve gear for expansion engines.  Author Charles Dockstader has provided his analysis of the Stephenson, Joy, Waelschaert, Corliss, and many other types of valve mechanisms for steam engines or air engines.  These devices are of great importance to the efficient use of compressed air in a piston engine.  What they enable is a thing called variable expansion.  When the car is cruising along, the use of air goes down.  When you need to burn rubber uphill, just adjust the expansion ratio and you can move mountains.  Your local steam engine club is another good source for basic information on such questions as, What is an eccentric (as opposed to a crankshaft)?

• howstuffworks.com/question133.htm is a general discussion of some basic air car concepts.

• uspto.gov/patft is the U.S. Patent Office's site for doing patent searches.  Once you find an air car patent, copy down the other patent numbers referenced and search for those patent numbers.  There are dozens, if not hundreds, of patents relating to air cars.  Software can be downloaded easily for viewing images of patents, following links found on the Patent Office site.

• techcentralstation.com/061303B.html is a good summary of the history of alternative vehicles, including the ICE (internal combustion engine).  The article is entitled "The ICE Age Isn't Over."

• http://bobcat74.free.fr/mmds/mmdsnotes.htm is a surprise.  Engage your sense of humor and scroll to the bottom of the referenced web page for a great American comic book hero and his goofy air car.

• aircars.hipplanet.com a new informational website of basic but little-known facts about compressed air and air cars.

• aircaraccess.com/museums.htm lists air cars on display, antiquarian items, scale models, and other curiosities related to air cars.  Click here to go there now.