End of the Line

Hyperloop technology is one of the most novel innovations in surface transportation. The concept is similar to the message tubes used in hospitals and large office buildings, with passenger or cargo pods operating at jetliner speeds inside evacuated tunnels. Hyperloop promises low emissions and downtown to downtown transportation between cities, but is it practical? After much hype, Richard Branso...

Diesel fuel is the true driving force on this planet. The ships, jets, trains and trucks that carry the goods that everyone uses every day are powered by some kerosene-type fuel like diesel. Recent shortages and price spikes have driven considerable debate in America about supply, demand and the future of fuel oils in an age when CO2 emissions must be reduced. It’s relatively easy to electrify pas...

Diesel engines have been around for over 120 years, and in that time, they have proven to be the most efficient form of internal combustion engine for applications as varied as large cargo ships, trucks, trains and even airplanes. Compared to spark ignited gasoline engines, they are more thermally efficient and deliver lower fuel burn per horsepower. Like all internal combustion engines, however,...

In 1964, NASCAR legend Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 in a Plymouth powered by the legendary 426 Hemi V8. It produced a little over 400 horsepower in race trim. Today, it’s possible to buy a Dodge with a Hemi V8 as well. The Hellcat produces over 700 horsepower, as a production engine, and does it on pump gasoline, with a factory warranty and full emission control compliance. That’s a tremendou...

NASCAR stock-car racing has evolved from cow pasture competitions between bootleg alcohol runners into a billion-dollar national sport in the U.S. Part of its popularity is built into the nature of the sport: closed-bodied cars that allow very close racing with occasional incidental contact. That contact does produce accidents, and over the years, the governing body has added regulations to improv...

Transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Both America and Europe have created incentive for the switch from internal combustion engine power to battery electrics drive in passenger cars and trucks. Tesla began the movement a decade ago, and today every major automaker has announced major investments in EV production, with one exception: Toyota. Regarded by many as the wor...

What’s the greatest automobile of all time? And how do you measure greatness? This has been an argument going on for generations, and in answering this question, there will be as many possible answers as there are experts. Jim Anderton is asked this question often and having observed the automotive industry from inside and out for several decades, he has a unique choice for greatest automobile of...

With an active debate currently ongoing regarding gun-control in America, the term “assault rifle” has been used indiscriminately by the media and by legislators. However, the term has a specific, technical definition, and a history that goes back to World War II. The most commonly known assault rifles today are the AK series that originated in Russia, and U.S. military equivalents based on Eugene...

The recent UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, reaffirmed CO2 reduction targets by the major signatories to the Paris Climate Accords. De-carbonizing transportation is a cornerstone of these efforts, but aviation is difficult to wean from fossil fuels for technical reasons.    Kerosene is cheap, energy dense and easy to carry on aircraft, but re...

Back in the ‘80s, the Soviet Navy operated a very unusual vehicle called an Ekranoplan. Combining some of the features of both a seagoing vessel and an airplane, it operated out of the water, in ground effect, and essentially defined an entirely new class of vehicle. The Lun-class Ekranoplan was large, about the size of an Airbus A380, and weighed over 300 tons, but could travel in excess of 340 m...

Broken supply chains have emerged as the primary economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis. As Covid-19 fades and war in Ukraine threatens further disruptions, little discussed is the fundamental reality behind global trade: it needs ships. And containers. As the United States has relinquished leadership in shipbuilding, China is rising. Access all episodes of  End of the Line  on  En...

Traditional nuclear reactor technology is robust and efficient—and unfortunately, expensive. Major cost overruns, sometimes in the billions of dollars, and significant construction delays are typical in large nuclear facility construction. Projects carry risk for investors, and more than once have threatened the ordering power generation utilities with bankruptcy. Nuclear power generation has move...

The slow pace of CO2 emissions reductions in the face of global uncertainty and COVID has driven a frenzy of fresh political activity as Paris Accord deadlines loom. Drastic reductions in fossil fuel use—over timelines on the order of half a decade—are now required to even come close to the levels specified by the Accords. On the ground, however, the necessary infrastructure and alternate energy p...

Bell’s prototype for an autonomous pod transport cargo drone suffered a failure during a recent test flight at Fort Benning, Georgia. No one was injured, although the aircraft sustained substantial damage. According to the NTSB report, a cracked ceramic capacitor in the circuitry of one of the motor controllers caused one of the four electric lift motors to fail, leading to the crash. All flight t...

With the outbreak of the first serious European war in 75 years, Germany finds itself in a situation similar to that faced in World War II: an energy crisis. Then, it was due to failure to secure the oil resources of the Caucasus; today, Russian fossil fuels are similarly at issue. The invasion of Ukraine is likely to end the era of Russian-supplied natural gas to Germany. As Europe’s largest econ...

There are standard metrics that economists use to gauge the health of a nation. GDP, median income and balance of trade are common. To measure the health of a manufacturing economy, production of semi-finished goods like steel and aluminum are a common measurement. Today, software is an important factor as well, but consumption of a few key inputs is a good proxy for the economic health of a moder...

No measurement is absolute. In fact, finding and accounting for error in measurement is frequently harder and more important than the base measurement itself. In important social and medical issues such as global warming and COVID-19, however, figures are presented as absolute and without uncertainty. No engineer would declare a critical dimension or measured attribute as absolute, but the practic...

In 1961, when United States was well behind the Soviet Union in the space race, then Pres. John F. Kennedy had a crazy idea: to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. The success of the Apollo program in achieving that goal was an engineering achievement on par with the Manhattan Project and mass production, but despite much higher technology today, it will be a challenge to repeat th...

Computer chip shortages have crippled the automotive industry, but they’re not the only one affected by broken supply chains. Empty store shelves are visible everywhere in the Western world, with the combination of pandemic induce labour shortages adding to demographic challenges to create the classic drivers of inflation. Is there an engineering solution to this problem? Jim Anderton argues, yes,...

5G is the much-anticipated high-frequency wireless technology that delivers high-bandwidth data with very little latency. It’s a popular technology that delivers high value services such as video streaming directly to handheld devices but operates on frequencies that are very close to those used by critical aircraft systems, notably radar altimeters. Radar altimeters measure the height of aircraft...

Artificial intelligence has historically been the most predicted development in information processing technology. Man-made intelligence has been a part of folklore since Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein and has been a staple of science fiction for decades. While true AI remains elusive, the state-of-the-art has progressed far enough to have major disruptive effects on economies worldwide. Will the...

Few industries are as difficult, expensive and risky to enter than auto making. Despite decades of futile attempts by many companies to take on the majors, the success of Tesla has spurred many to start EV enterprises. Surprisingly, Sony Corporation has joined the fray, announcing a new electric crossover SUV at this year’s consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. This is the second electric vehicl...

For decades, individuals and corporations have sold devices that claim to improve automotive engine efficiency. Some plug in to the car's 12 V power outlet, and some are wired to the car’s battery, but they all have one thing in common: they don’t work. The reason they don’t work is based in physics, but despite multiple independent tests that confirm that these devices don’t work, they are still...

In the early 1960s, the Hanna-Barbera animated television series, The Jetsons predicted a future world of flying cars and homes in the sky. Flying taxis have been predicted for decades, but physics dictated that vertical takeoff and landing meant the cost and complexity of helicopters. Today, high-capacity batteries combined with lightweight, high-efficiency electric motors promise to make passeng...

There is a little-known law called the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, which includes a provision to compensate whistleblowers for revealing safety critical auto flaws to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Former Hyundai engineer Kim Gwang-ho is the first to receive an award under the system, taken by NHTSA from a large fine paid by Hyundai to resolve a...