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Meet The First Car Powered By Air
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of CBS News
Posted: November 11th, 2006
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/28/tech/main2135518.s...
At their factory in southern France, father-and-son team Guy and Cyril Negre insist air power is no joke. Plain old air compressed in the tank, they say, cheap and non-polluting. Sound too good to be true? Says Cyril, It's a real car. The other thing is it's a very zero emission car. You won't pollute, there won't be emission. You have a very economical car. A car, says the Negres, that will cost just $2 for every 120 miles. The Negres have a long love affair with cars. Guy designed a Formula One race car engine. Cyril worked at Bugati. The technology for their car, they say, is relatively simple and safe. When you compress the air...inside of the tank, this is like compressing a spring, and then the tank gives you back the energy of the air when it expands, says Cyril. Compressed air in a carbon-fiber tank, something like scuba divers use, drives the pistons and turns the crankshaft. There is no combustion and no gasoline. That's why there's no pollution. You fill it up at an air compressor. It may sound far-fetched, but at his labs on the campus of UCLA, professor Su-Chin Chow is also exploring the power of air. The Negres say after years of delays...they have solved their technical problems. Another year, they say, and they'll be ready for large scale production, with a top speed of 55 miles-an-hour.
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