Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401240245
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In your Jan. 18 editorial entitled ``Automakers hugging the slow lane,'' you state that automakers are trying to fight electric-car regulations and you imply that they're delaying development of this technology.
This is a false accusation as regards Chrysler Corp. I just returned from a visit to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where Chrysler publicly displayed its ``Patriot'' test vehicle.
The Patriot is powered by a hybrid electric power plant employing the first automotive application of flywheel-battery technology. This power plant will be tested publicly on the racing circuit to provide a rapid assessment of its viability and durability.
Results of these race tests will be translated directly into passenger-car design and engineering. Chrysler Corp. has led the world's auto industry in many areas and is again the leader in flywheel technology.
As an aside, Chrysler Corp. currently offers for sale a regular-production electric minivan. It's the first zero-emission vehicle certified under California regulations. Just recently, Chrysler began regular production of natural-gas-powered minivans and full-size cargo vans, which have been certified for sale under California's low-emission regulations.
I recommend that you fully and accurately research your subject matter in the future to avoid printing editorials such as this, which are based on false and incomplete data.
ANDY KAPLAN
President
Dominion Car. Co.
SALEM
Don't wait around for a flywheel car
I WAS startled to read your Jan. 18 editorial (``Automakers hugging the slow lane'') concerning a flywheel battery-powered car.
You castigated automakers for their lack of flexibility for change. There may be something to that. But if you read the literature, you'll find that automakers all over the world have spent millions, if not billions, of dollars over the past 20 years researching new thermodynamic cycles and have built myriad experimental vehicles.
These have been powered by just about every kind of power plant one can think of, including steam, gas turbines, fuel cells, new and exotic fuels, as well as compound machines like the flywheel battery. All have serious economic and technical problems that keep them from the market.
The flywheel-powered vehicle may seem simple, but it must store millions of pounds of energy to have a reasonable range. To do that, the flywheel must operate in a vacuum at extremely high rotational speeds that generate very high forces in the rim of the flywheel.
This presents a difficult design problem. If all operational problems are solved, the unit still must be protected during a collision or it could explode like a ton of high explosives. Therefore, in the interest of safety, a heavy containment vessel must be provided, which decreases efficiency, is expensive and will increase the cost of insurance.
I believe the editorial is a victim of some good public relations. Consequently, I'm willing to bet the editorial staff a steak dinner that the flywheel car will not come to market in our lifetime. Any takers?
Incidentally, the Jan. 17 issue of Autoweek says your editorial car ``has yet to turn a wheel under its own power.''
CHARLES D. WARING
ROANOKE
Teach black history to all young folks
ALL THE interviews on our local black history were great (front page of the Jan. 16 Extra section, ``Roanoke's hidden history'' by staff writer Mary Bishop). My youngest son asked me if all these stories were true. I said yes, and not so long ago.
As a white ex-employee of Hotel Roanoke, I'd like to clarify one thing. Yes, they had employees' dining rooms - one for white and one for colored. The food was dispensed in a central kitchen, and the colored employees went down one side and we whites went down the other. The price was just a nominal charge.
Many of these colored people left the hotel at the same time I did and were employed by General Electric at the same time I was.
Our younger generation needs to know these facts and history should be put to them truthfully. I mean that for all races. This is how we mend fences.
I look forward to more interviews.
JOAN K. SHANNON
ROANOKE
Leading the way to pneumonia
WITH THE INAUGURATION of Virginia's top leaders behind us, it may be illuminative to pose one small question:
How can any politician - Republican, Democrat or otherwise - who refuses to wear as much as a coat, hat, a pair of gloves or a mere scarf on an inaugural day when the wind-chill factor is well below zero be capable of truly exemplary leadership? Methinks the emperor wears no coat!
JOHN T. JORDAN
BLACKSBURG
by CNB