Flywheels (was RE: Composite vehicles )

["VanDerWal, Peter" <vanderwp@fhu.disa.mil>]

>A flywheel to recapture braking energy?  Has *anyone* made this work in the
>real world?

Sure, that guy from 'Fly-by-Knight Inc', ok it's actually something like
'Knight Rider Inc', John Wayland knows who I'm talking about.  The guy is
absolutely ga-ga over flywheels, he builds things like motorcycles that can
stand up by themselves when stationary.  Personally I think a center stand
is a better idea, it uses much less power.

He builds his own flywheels and uses Lynch motors as the motor/generator.
Overall I think you'll find that ordinary lead-acid batteries have far
better storage efficiency (both long and short term) and probably better
energy/power to weight ratios.  The flywheels might have better
power-to-weight than say flooded batteries, but they can't hold a candle to
something like Bolder cells.