Regarding the French Negre air engine vehicles...someone actually did
some research...(YYAAAAYYYY) and shared it with Bills freenrg list which
I am reposting here;
------------------
Hi Michael and others,
I did some searching on the web about the Negre air engine and I found
some info and also the CQFD Air Solution address :
At http://www.calstart.org/forum/messages/508 I found this :
"Guy Negre has tried to sell his idea to french car makers like Renault
and Peugeot. Apparently without any success. Cars will be made in mexico
by local car makers under french licence. Eventually 87 000 taxis should
be replaced. According to the report the engine weight 34Kg runs at up
to 7000 rpm develops 60 to 80 CV (horsepower) and consumes 15 liters of
compressed air (200 bars) per hour. Maximal speed 100 Kmh per hour.
CQFD Air Solutions is based in France in Brignoles.
Source : In the french magazine Science & vie (issue #969 of June 1998,
page 130-134) a report by Catherine Cousin."
At http://www.calstart.org/forum/messages/804 I found this :
"the may 1999 issue of wired has a piece on p. 76: CQFD Air Solution
Sarl,in Brignoles, France, led by Guy Negre, has built an airpowered car
that makes electric cars seem like noxious nightmares. Negre has
designed lightweight engines for lightweight aircraft and Formula One
racecars. The clean-burning 2-cylinder motor uses a combination of
heated outside air and supercompressed air from tanks stored under the
car. The Mexican Government is planning to buy a fleet of 40,000
compressed-air powered taxis. At gas-station air pumps where others
inflate tires, Negre can fill up in less than 3 minutes and a tankful
lasts about 120 miles. Carbon filters scrub the expired air before it is
released. It produces negative pollution, Negre says. He and his team of
20 engineers have developed 3 prototypes: a taxi, a van, and a pickup.
They are expected to be released in 2000 at an average cost of $13,000."
At http://www.calstart.org/forum/messages/888 I found this :
CQFD Air Solution
=2E.Forum Aurelia
Route du Val
83170
Brignoles
telephone +33498-051000.
E-mail: cqfd.be@infonie.fr
I have not checked this address but the email address is correct. The
email adress belongs to Guy Negre (or his son?) himself.
At this page I found also a newspaper report from the Manchester =
Guardian: Air today, Mexico City tomorrow / Paul Webster in Brignoles
WITH nothing more than a slight wheeze as the compressed air tap was
turned on by the driver, followed by a polite phut-phut from its
eco-friendly motor, the bright green car that might change the way we
drive in the next century set off for a run outside the workshop in this
southern French city.
Its designer, Guy N=E8gre, who abandoned the Formula One race circuit to
build a zero-pollution car, had reason to smile as the vehicle
accelerated as smoothly as a petrol-engined version. The demonstration
was his first answer to the scores of sceptics who reacted critically
when the Guardian Weekly first published the news in February of a
compressed-air prototype that could be filled up for a less than $2 and
run for 10 hours in urban conditions.
=2E.From the pile of correspondence to the editor here is a quote from
Graham F Andrews, in Gresham, Oregon, USA, summing up the sceptics'
viewpoint. "In his writings on two cultures, C P Snow drew a parallel
between liberal arts types who did not know the Second Law of
Thermodynamics and technical types who had never read Shakespeare," he
wrote. "By this standard your Paul Webster should either go back to
school or be demoted to theatre critic."
Apart from the fact that being appointed "theatre" critic should not be
considered demotion, I had to check out his theory that it would need
several thousand atmospheres to move the vehicle and that pressure would
be so high that sitting on the air tank would be like sitting on a bomb. =
This big bang view is rather important as Mexico plans to mass-produce
the vehicle under licence to replace the capital's 87,000 taxis.
Preconceptions about noisy and greasy car factories take a knock on
meeting Mr N=E8gre, whose workshop in this town near the Mediterranean
beaches, is as clean as a clinic. White-coated engineers build every
component and chassis part for brightly-coloured toy-like taxis that
would appeal to Noddy. =
Mr N=E8gre is a down-to-earth, self-taught engine designer. At 58 he is
recovering from losing a fortune developing a Formula One motor that ran
into opposition from big manufacturers. For this reason he has no plans
to take on GM or Ford with a private-car version of the air-driven
vehicle.
"There is no point in clashing with the big firms when there are so many
specialist slots to be filled," he said, before giving technical details
of a motor known as the MDI EV3 C that uses nothing except the air
around us. =
"The air tanks are a special design made in carbon and are 100 percent
safe. They contain 300 litres of air at 300 bars and can be refilled in
three minutes under high pressure. The car's maximum speed is 100 km/h,
and urban autonomy, with full tanks, is 10 hours."
Without taking the compressed air engine apart or sitting in the car for
10 hours while it runs around Mexico City, there is no reason to doubt
Mr N=E8gre's claims, backed up by detailed diagrams that have persuaded
160 backers in Britain and the rest of Europe to take up shares in Motor
Development International in Luxembourg, which oversees investment.
=2E.For sceptics who want to take the argument further, Mr N=E8gre hopes =
to
hear from them at CQFD Air Solution, Forum Aurelia, Route du Val, 83170,
Brignoles, telephone +33498-051000. E-mail: cqfd.be@infonie.fr
I have also found some patents :
http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?patent_number=3D5592904
I hope you have more info now.
Regards,
WJ - mbe1284@elektro.fontys.nl
-- =
Jerry Wayne Decker / jdecker@keelynet.com
http://keelynet.com / "From an Art to a Science"
Voice : (214) 324-8741 / FAX : (214) 324-3501
KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 - Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187