AIR CAR Explained: AIRPODS - Compressed Air Car

AIR CAR: AIRPod 2.0 Compressed Air-Powered Car

Hello Guys in this we discuss about some what about AIRPOD but this are not AirPods in which you listen songs, or etc. This is what you ride in the air. Yes guys these is future of automobile industries, So let's see how it works...

Gasoline is already the fuel of the past. It might not seem that way as you fill up on your way to work, but the petroleum used to make it is gradually running out. It also pollutes air that's becoming increasingly unhealthy to breathe, and people no longer want to pay the high prices that oil companies are charging for it. Automobile manufacturers know all of this and have spent lots of time and money to find and develop the fuel of the future.

The search is on, but what will this fuel of the future be? Ready-made fuels like petroleum are becoming more difficult to find and automobile manufacturers are turning to greener energy sources like batteries. These batteries can be charged with energy and placed in a car where that energy can be released. As good as that idea might seem, some manufacturers think air could become an even better energy source.

How Compressed Air Can Fuel a Car

MDI's Guy Negre shows off the AirPod One prototype

The laws of physics dictate that uncont­ained gases will­ fill any given space. The easiest way to see this in action is to inflate a balloon. The elastic skin of the balloon holds the air tightly inside, but the moment you use a pin to create a hole in the balloon's surface, the air expands outward with so much energy that the balloon explodes. Compressing a gas into a small space is a way to store energy. When the gas expands again, that energy is released to do work. That's the basic principle behind what makes an air car go.­ ­

Charging/Refueling the AIR CAR or AIRPOD

The first air cars will have air compressors built into them. After a brisk drive, you'll be able to take the car home, put it into the garage and plug in the compressor. The compressor will use air from around the car to refill the compressed air tank. Unfortunately, this is a rather slow method of refuelling and will probably take up to two hours for a complete refill. If the idea of an air car catches on, air refuelling stations will become available at ordinary gas stations, where the tank can be refilled much more rapidly with air that's already been compressed. Filling your tank at the pump will probably take about three minutes.

Air Car Advantages

One major advan­tage of using compressed air to power a car's engine is that a pure compressed air vehicle produces no pollution at the tailpipe. More specifically, the compressed air cars we're likely to see in the near future won't pollute at all until they reach speeds exceeding 35 miles per hour. That's when the car's internal air compressor will kick in to achieve extra speed. The motor that runs this air compressor will require fuel that'll produce a small amount of air pollution. Some fuel (you can use eco-friendly bio fuels or fossil fuels) will also be used to heat the air as it emerges from the tank. The newest compressed air engines also offer drivers the option of using fossil fuels or bio fuels to heat the air as it enters the engine. Nonetheless, this technology represents a marked improvement over cars powered by internal combustion engines that produce significant amounts of pollution at any speed.

Air cars are also designed to be lighter than conventional cars. The aluminium construction of these vehicles will keep their weight under 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms), which is essential to making these vehicles fuel efficient and will help them go faster for longer periods of time.

Air Car Disadvantages

Could this happen to you in an air car crash?

While an air car produces no pollution running on already compressed air in its tank, pollution is nonetheless produced when the air is compressed, both while the car is moving and while it's being refuelled. As we mentioned earlier, the vehicle's air compressor will probably run on gasoline, and this gas will produce pollution when burned.

The air compressor at the gas station will probably be powered by electricity. The production of that electricity may or may not pollute, depending on how that electricity is generated. For example, coal-powered electricity could produce substantial amounts of pollution. Cleaner sources of electricity, such as nuclear power or hydropower, will result in far less pollution. According to the Web site Gas 2.0, an air car in the United States would create about .176 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per mile based on the average mix of electric power sources during refuelling. By comparison, a Toyota Prius Hybrid, which combines a battery-powered electric motor with an internal combustion engine, generates about 0.34 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile. So, while the air car is not quite pollution free, it still represents an improvement over one of the most popular hybrid cars on the market .

Air Cars in the Marketplace

A look inside the AirPod One prototype.

India­'s Tata Mo­tors will likely p­rodu­ce the first air car in the marketplace in the next few years. Tata Motors' air car will also use the CAE engine. Although Tata announced in August 2008 that they aren't quite ready to roll out their air cars for mass production, Zero Pollution Motors still plans to produce a similar vehicle in the United States. Known collectively as the FlowAIR, these cars will cost about $17,800. The company, based in New Paltz, N.Y., says that it will start taking reservations in mid-2009 for vehicle deliveries in 2010. The company plans to roll out 10,000 air cars in the first year of production. MDI also recently unveiled the joystick-driven AirPod, the newest addition to its air car arsenal. Although the AirPod generates a top speed of only 43 mph, it's also extremely light and generates zero emissions.

Major automobile makers are watching the air car market with interest. If the first models catch on with consumers, they'll likely develop their own air car models. At present, a few smaller companies are planning to bring air cars to the market in the wake of the MDI-based vehicles.

Tata Motors’ Air-powered Car Could Hit The Market In 2020

Back in 2007, Tata Motors made a deal with Motor Development International (MDI), a French firm to roll out a car that will run on compressed air. The project both companies are working was named as Airpod.

According to some emerging reports on the internet, Tata Motors' new car that is powered by compressed air technology could be launched in the country in three years of time. The manufacturer has also successfully completed the first phase of the project long back. The second stage of the detailed development started a few years ago. Dr. Tim Leverton, President and Head at Advanced and Product Engineering, Tata Motors told Autocar Professional, "We are now at a point where we are starting industrialisation (of the project)."

Tata's new car will be an answer to environmental degradation and energy shortages. These type of cars will weigh less than conventional cars because of the aluminium construction. Air-powered cars will weigh under 907kg, which will make them more fuel efficient.

The Airpod concept can be driven with the help of joystick and only costs Rs 70 per 200 km. Tata has not revealed many details about its upcoming air-powered car. The production model of the Airpod will have a top speed of more than 65km/h.