Alternate WTF Vehicles

Yeah, before long someone will build this:



Oh wait, some people already did:


or

Whis is from MIB III


and the McLean Wheel:

The Thorium Dream

More LFTR

Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor in 5 Minutes - THORIUM REMIX 2011

Thorium is readily available & can be turned into energy without generating transuranic wastes. Thorium's capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs. A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today's energy/climate crisis. LFTR is a type of Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (Th-MSR). This video summarizes over 6 hours worth of thorium talks given by Kirk Sorensen and other thorium technologists.

Engines

Alpha type Stirling engine. There are two cylinders. The expansion cylinder (red) is maintained at a high temperature while the compression cylinder (blue) is cooled. The passage between the two cylinders contains the regenerator.

Beta Type Stirling Engine. There is only one cylinder, hot at one end and cold at the other. A loose fitting displacer shunts the air between the hot and cold ends of the cylinder. A power piston at the end of the cylinder drives the flywheel.

Radial engine in a cut-away view

Radial engine timing and cam mechanism

Double acting stationary steam engine

An animation of a simplified triple-expansion engine.
High-pressure steam (red) enters from the boiler and passes through the engine, exhausting as low-pressure steam (blue).

Schematic animation of a uniflow steam engine.
The poppet valves are controlled by the rotating camshaft at the top. High pressure steam enters, red, and exhausts, yellow.

The Wankel cycle. The "A" marks one of the three apexes of the rotor. The "B" marks the eccentric shaft and the white portion is the lobe of the eccentric shaft. The shaft turns three times for each rotation of the rotor around the lobe and once for each orbital revolution around the eccentric shaft.

Nano Quadrotors