Bill Gill said-
I seem to recall from many years ago that, at that time, the wheels had to provide at least part of the drive force. That may have changed since then. .........>
Bill Gill
Mike Kremers reply to Bill Gill-
Absolutely right Bill, before racing jet cars came about, all the old real racing cars with their V12 long engines, raced across the sand beaches or the Salt flats, using their driving wheels.
I dont consider a real racing car, a Jet that hovers a few inches above the ground, at speeds of 600mph plus....using its non-driven wheels as sort of ski's, just to stabilize the car keeping some sort of contact with the ground, so it can still called a car.
The wheels may turn thru ground friction, but do not reflect
the true speed of the car, since they are not the driving force.
Bill Gill said-
The one I saw the story about was supposed to have a paddle wheel or something of the sort that transferred some of the energy from the jet exhaust to the wheels.
I dont think there would be any problem taking off a direct wheel drive from the rotating part of the jet, Bill.
What (to my mind) would be the problem is the engineering design compromise between the diameter of the wheels, (say 3-4ft D?) and the cetrifugal forces involved driving the wheels to run at speeds of 600mph and above.
Also the the axel design involved to insure the car is kept a few inches above the ground, keeping all 4 wheels in contact with the ground.
A car that dangerously hovers, is not a car (in my view).
Yet it would need to have a large enough diameter wheels, cutting down the rotational speeds to ensure the hubs stays within safe heat limits.
