Air Cars?

It's no joke, the first factory production air cars will debut in India in the summer of 2008 as the first affordable zero emission cars (update BBC 2/13/2008). As an alternative to combustion engine cars it may even trump electric cars with affordability and simplicity.

An ex-Union Civil War general designs air powered locomotives that run in New York City in the 1890's. Air propulsion, "...the safest, cleanest, most accessible and most economical energy medium that exists anywhere on this planet " Pneumatic Options Research Library a must see website about air propulsion with little known and fascinating history of air propulsion with illustrations and photos along with the latest news and research reports.

Air cars being produced in India run on compressed air stored in carbon-fiber tanks can reach speeds of 68 mph and has a range of about 125 miles. They come with an on-board plug in electric air compressor to recharge the tank in about 4 hrs. at home or in route recharging in a few minutes at stations equipped with special super air compressors. Innovative and appropriate low tech. air compressing methods are being developed such as wind mills, river current and wave motion compressors.

Light weight construction gives air cars the affordability, speed and range necessary as viable transportation. Batteries determine the cost and range of electric cars. Lead acid batteries are relatively inexpensive at a few hundred dollars but are very heavy and limits range to about 30 miles. New technology like lithium batteries increase the range to 100 to 300+ miles but are prohibitively expensive at many thousands of dollars and come equipped only in cars costing $30,000 to $100,000+.

Compared to alternative vehicle and fuel ideas being hyped today, like electric, hydrogen, ethanol etc., air car's low tech. solution approach I think give it the best chance of success on a mass scale. If a solution is not going to work for people in Mumbai or rural Bolivia, it probably is not going to work for me in the long run here in northeast Washington State.

I am personally looking forward to light weight air powered bicycles for tootling around the neighborhood. There are nice electric bicycles available now but they are expensive, at over $1000 and heavy, weighing in at 70+ lbs.