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So what can you do with a bus?
Page 20
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You don't often see passenger transport vehicles in these pages, but we're making a rare exception for a bus that has pretentions to be something else.
Optare, now the UK's third largest bus builder, has joined forces with the Royal College of Art to investigate uses for its new Alone model beyond passenger carrying. At first sight. the RCA might seem a rather esoteric body to be involved in vehicle design; in fact it has a respected department dedicated to the subject.
The link comes in the form of Optare's funding of a research graduate at the RCA's Helen Hamtyn Research Centre.
Owen Evans, a 27-year-old Welsh engineer with considerable practical design experience with Ricardo and Cosworth, has been given a 12-month "blue-sky" brief to explore alternative uses for the Alero.
Launched just a month ago, the Ivaco Sofim-powered 18seater Ater° comprises a
one-piece composite body over a stainlesssteel space-frame, featuring a very low, flat floor. Although this typo
of construction is relatively expensive compared with a conventional van, specialised goods transport will be among the possibilities considered by Evans.