Monday Fun: Electric Motors Used In Extreme Snowboarding (VIDEO)
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Originally published on Gas2.
By Zachary Coffey
What do you get when you combine four electric motors, a 30,000 rpm fan and a bar? Why, a jet-powered human of course. The name Dreamscience Propulsion may not mean anything to us but this company, coming out of the UK, is developing a nifty device that goes by the simple name “thruster.”
The thruster’s four 8Kw electric motors are attached in pairs to either end of a roughly 4-foot bar that the user holds in front of them. The current version provides 25Kg of thrust for up to 5 minutes, but a more advanced version in the engineering process will provide 40Kg of thrust for up to 15 minutes of full power use. Traditional turbojet cores produce an unbearable amount of heat, but by using electric motor core, heat can be kept to a manageable level.
The thruster can be used to make extreme sports even more extreme and Dreamscience Propulsion asked world-class snowboarder Jamie Barrow to test this new propulsion system out. During tests, Barrow was able to reach 80.627 km/hour using the aluminum and carbon fiber device.
Humans have been strapping jet propulsion systems on to ridiculous things for years. From shopping carts to ATVs, there are a wide variety of applications for these systems, and with development they could provide low-power, compact transportation. The thruster won’t be seen at this year’s X-Games but if development continues, it may bring some new competitions to the table.
Sources | Photos: Dreamscience Propulsion | CarScoops
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