Experimental bus
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AN EXPERIMENTAL flywheel-electric bus is being built in the United States by the General Electric Company.
The company has won a $5m contract to equip a fullsize American city transit bus with the system and to conduct operational trials with it.
But it is not clear whether it will carry passengers in service, or whether the experiments will take place on General Electric's research sites.
The bus will be propelled by a 1.5 ton flywheel made from a stack of steel discs which spins at 10,000rpm. This drives a 12 ton bus for 3.5 Miles in stop-go city driving, and can be reenergised in 90 seconds.
This project forms part of the USA's energy-conservation and propulsion-tdachnology programme, and it is being funded jointly by the Departments of Energy and Transportation.