TransformerRobot

What if I did something like on Canada's Worst Driver?; Light foam props on the track for the riders to crash through.

If they're wearing a fully enclosed suit of power armor, it's not really open air anymore. I mean, you've effectively just created a less aerodynamic, detachable cockpit module at that point.

Then how else can I make it more exciting if I can't reach speeds of around 500 mph?

 

Fun to watch it do what? I'll assume it's for racing. Is it for drag racing or is it maneuvering curves at 500 mph? The open cockpit suggests a vehicle that's easy to get in and out of and is very maneuverable, like a motorcycle. But the speeds are more like a jet plane at ground level. I'm not seeing the need for easy in and out when this thing can take me 8 miles away in under a minute.

It's for maneuvering curves at 500 mph, because it's electromagnetically levitated (Don't ask me to explain, it's really complicated alien technology).

Are there other similar vehicles in the race? What kind of terrain? If it's not paved, and these bikes kick up dust, everyone behind the leader gets a 500 mph sand blasting.

All vehicles in the race are like that. The tracks range from metal tracks, to dirt, to grasslands.

As to scale, where would the rider's head be in relation to the windshield?

Behind the windshield, but a little bit above it.

Either way, if the driver can feel the wind, he's slowing the vehicle down. It seems logical that a high speed vehicle would be designed to reduce that drag.

I was thinking that the rider was strengthened by a powered exoskeleton (See: Iron Man).

Is it more important to the story for the vehicle to be exciting and potentially dangerous and fun to watch, or is it more important that the physics are credible? I can suspend my disbelief a little easier if I'm not wondering why anyone would want to ride in an open cockpit at 500 mph.

Because it would feel exhilarating, like riding a missile. Plus, it would be an amazing test of reflexes.

To make it more exciting and fun to watch, unless you think I should do something else to make it more exciting.

What if something was propelling the rider forward from behind so that they were kept onto the seat?

The problem isn't the speed itself, it's hitting something. In this case, the air. That's why most vehicles that travel especially fast are enclosed rather than open air like that.

Well what's something we can do to resist all that air friction?

It would rip your skin off...

It would? O_O

Why?

What could be done to prevent that?

There is literally no difference between traveling at a constant speed of 300 mph and just sitting still unless you hit something. Acceleration is what has the effect and, incidentally, is what causes all the damage when you hit something or when something hits you. Drive a car into a concrete wall? You're experiencing the acceleration of going for 60 mph to 0 mph very, very quickly. Hit by a car? It accelerates you from 0 to 60 mph a lot faster than your body is comfortable with.

 

Simply moving at any given speed is going to do precisely nothing to you, however.

Well what about if you were driving something like this at 500 mph?

Rapid acceleration, deceleration might kill.

 

When your body is decelerating brain in head is continuing flying in previous direction, hitting your skull and smashing, causing damage and internal bleeding.

Well, what would happen if one was accelerated from 0-300 mph in 3 seconds?

I wanna know what effect certain speeds have on the normal human body.

So to start things off, what effects are there on the body when moving at 300 miles per hour?

I'm working on concepts for an animated series about a motorsport in the distant future.

One of the main characters, a big competitor in said sport, is from an alien civilization of velociraptor-like people.

The problem is their eyes:

With their eyes in those natural positions, and the fact that she'd be riding forward on a high-speed vehicle, would her eyes put her at a disadvantage?

Or would they give her an advantage?

I've been working on concepts for an animated series about a futuristic motorsport.

One of the riders in this sport who will get the most focus is a girl from a race of velociraptor-like people from another planet.

The problem is the raptor's eyes.

If her eyes are in those locations in her head, and she spends most of her time riding a high speed vehicle forward, would her eyes give her a disadvantage?

If not, could they give her an advantage instead?

That is not what determines if they see better. It just determines what range of vision they have. However to answer your question yes they do believe that the placement of the eyes in these positions is suppose to better aid them. Vs the having eyes in the front of the head.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binocular_vision

But could they see forward in any way at all? Or would that be too difficult?

Velociraptors had eyes at the sides of their heads right?

If that's the case, and since it had binocular vision, could this dinosaur see better or worse than humans?

There's as much danger as if you were in a car at the same speed. All the energy has to go somewhere. The collision might be slightly less damaging, given the hovercraft's frictionless nature compared to the ground (i.e. they may tend to bounce off one another more than say, cars), but I expect there would still be some damage.

 

As for how much wear the skirt can take, that's completely dependent on what it's made of, how durable it is, and will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

What is the strongest fabric available for making the skirt?

Could something as powerful as Kevlar be used?

Not much. Steering a hovercraft is already pretty easy - you make them spin in a circle if you really need to.

 

The problem here is you're trying to make it work in a way it was not intended to. Never forget, a hovercraft has no physical contact with the groud, the skirt not withstanding. It is essentially riding ona frictionless surface, so it depends on its thrusters for steering and braking.

So there's not any major danger with 2 hovercraft colliding provided both pilots are buckled in?

What about if they hit trees, rocks or guardrails? And if the craft were racing on paved areas, how much could the skirt take before there would be a tear in it?

Then what can be put on a craft to make the steering easier?

That's what they were doing on those corners? I thought they were doing at least 130 in cornering.

 

You should try it first, don't forget there are no brakes.

Well, then how can people take hover racing as seriously as they do Formula 1 or Hydroplaning?

I thought people were attracted to racing competitions because of the blood-boiling speeds?

What are you actually trying to do?

I'm just trying to learn how a hovercraft would be made to go faster?

The fastest a craft has ever gone is 137.4 km/h. Do you know how boring it must be to hold races with a vehicle that slow?

Okay, how safe would it be if the RPMs were lowered to 7500? Still too much?

What if I just added a second fan to the rear end, and a pair of light 12 inch wings at the sides?

Well, let's look at the math.

 

If we assume a four foot diameter fan, running at 2500 rpm (at the hub), that yields a prop tip speed of 357 mph.

The same prop spinning at your 500k rpm reaches prop tip velocities of 71,400 miles per hour, or something like three times the escape velocity of the Earth.

 

My guess is it would explode in a wonderous spray of shrapnel and kill everyone in the immediate vicinity.

 

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Calculations courtesy of http://www.hoverhawk.com/propspd.html

Well, since that won't end well, what if the RPM ratio was 25K?

Or, if trying to make the fan more powerful, would the craft get faster if a small jet engine was in place of the propulsion fan?