Gyrocars (Cars Balanced On Two Wheels)

[EnolaGaia]

Copied from:
Mysteriously Buried Cars & Other Vehicles
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/mysteriously-buried-cars-other-vehicles.67143/
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A "Gyrocar" is a 2-wheeled enclosed car that maintains its balance using one or more gyroscopes. It's not the same thing as an enclosed motorcycle or motorized trike. The notion of a 2-wheels gyrocar has been an elusive futuristic / mad science concept for over a century. Multiple gyrocars and gyrocar-style monorail vehicles have been proposed and promoted, but only a handful were ever actually built and demonstrated.

This story concerns the first functional gyrocar - the conceptual brainchild of a Russian count and gyroscope enthusiast who believed gyrocars would make good all-terrain vehicles for the Russian Army, transformed into a demonstration prototype by the UK firm Wolseley from 1912 through 1914.

The Great War interrupted the R&D effort, and Wolseley buried the world's first (somewhat) functional gyrocar. More than 2 decades later they disinterred it, then scrapped it another decade after that.

Here's the full weird saga ...

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/20...-gyro-car-because-it-ran-out-of-storage-space

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here's some background on gyrocars:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrocar

The two primary features that distinguish a gyrocar from (e.g.) a cyclecar (enclosed motorcycle-style ride) are:

- the vehicle balances itself, and ...
- the driver / passengers sit in car-style seats rather than straddling the vehicle.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The Gyro-X gyrocar concept was developed and demonstrated up through 1967.

During the last decade the 1967 prototype has been acquired, restored to its original configuration, and retired to a museum.

Gyro-X-1967
https://www.lanemotormuseum.org/collection/cars/item/gyro-x-1967

The Quest to Put a 1967 Self-Balancing 'Car' Back on Its Feet
https://www.wired.com/story/gyro-x-lane-motor-museum/

 

[EnolaGaia]

The 1929 Brennan monorail car is another example of a gyrocar prototype. Development of gyroscopically balanced monorails occurred in parallel with R&D into similar road vehicles.

 

[Ermintruder]

who believed gyrocars would make good all-terrain vehicles for the Russian Army

Whilst the design concept of a two-wheeled gyro-stabilsed giant motor-bicycle-cum-car is fascinating in itself, how/why on earth did anyone believe such a thing would be perfect as a military ATV?

In conventional interpretation, multi-wheeled/multi-axle all-wheel drive (and multiple-wheeled axles) is the solution for this. Massive ground-clearance 4x4s with chunky tyres, or 6x6s or even 8x8s.

What was the designer actually trying to achieve? Really interesting.....but: why?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Whilst the design concept of a two-wheeled gyro-stabilsed giant motor-bicycle-cum-car is fascinating in itself, how/why on earth did anyone believe such a thing would be perfect as a military ATV? ...

Shilovsky was a gyroscope fanatic and a central figure in a society dedicated to gyroscopes. IMHO his gyrocar concept represented an intersection of this personal interest with his administrative interest in devising some sort of radical technology to modernize the Russian military.

I think he was envisioning something along the lines of the same concept the US Forest Service would explore from the 1960s onward - a gyroscopically-balanced two-wheeled vehicle that would serve as a "mule" for transporting personnel and materiel over backcountry terrain.

​

SO LONG MULE

Obsolescence may have come to the American mule, brought on by a two- wheeled truck which, like the mule, can travel a narrow mountain grade without tipping over.

The Forest Service of the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture granted a contract to Summers Gyro Corporation, a subsidiary of Gyro Dynamics Corporation, to develop a heavy-duty version of a unique trail truck which harnesses the forces of a gyroscope to maintain equilibrium on grades up to 60 percent. The two-wheeled vehicle being field tested by USDA weighs nearly 11,000 pounds, has a front driver's platform, and 5,000 pound cargo capacity transportable up a 60 percent grade.

The Forest Service Equipment and Development Center at Missoula, Mon- tana is the test site where the test ve- hicles have been used in place of men and mules in the trail maintenance program.

The contract to design and build the heavy-duty version followed successful tests of a smaller vehicle with a 1,000 pound payload capacity. In hauling capa- city, the 1,000 pound version replaces four mules.

These vehicles harness the kinetic forces of the gyroscope (the same forces which keep a child's gyroscope top from tipping over) for part of their stabilization qualities. However, the overall design is such that a vehicle can maintain its balance even when the engine is not in operation. For example, the vehicle will remain up- right for 15 minutes as the gyro con- tinues to spin. As a gyro vehicle moves along a trail or grade, the gyroscope and servo mechanisms bank it into equilibrium so that it remains upright. The Summers system uses a 20-inch diameter gyroscope which weighs 180 pounds and spins at 5,500 rpm.

These vehicle s are based on patented technology which may someday result in a gyrostabilized automobile that will be smaller and safer than today's cars.

Address of the developer is Summers Gyro Corporation, Thousand Oaks, California.

SOURCE:
Grist (National Park Service newsletter)
Volume 13, No. 6 (November / December 1969)
p. 45
http://npshistory.com/newsletters/park_practice/grist/v13n6.pdf