Pedal powered amphibian tricycle with blower-turbine coupling means
OwnerEmanuel A. Rupenianinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A three wheeled amphibian vehicle operated by pedal power and including an air blower coupled to a disk turbine. The turbine is a flat circular rotatable structure having blade cavities on both upper and lower faces. Twin nozzles, connected to the blower, direct air streams toward the blades and form a coupling means which can be controlled to provide a variable speed ratio between the pedals and the driving wheel, thereby acting as a gear box including Drive, Neutral and Reverse. A spring coupled by a clutch mechanism to the driving shaft may be used to store energy while coasting down hill and then deliver the stored energy to the shaft when climbing up hill. Retractable pontoons are provided for traveling on water.
Claims20
In a pedal powered amphibian vehicle equipped with conventional brakes and having a single front wheel and two rear wheels from among only one is a driving wheel;
- the improvement comprising:
- a rotary air blower coupled to pedal crank arms and driven by them for creating a continuous pressurized air stream;
- a flat turbine wheel provided with reaction blade cavities and coupled to the rear driver wheel for turning it and thereby moving the vehicle;
- two nozzles connected to said air blower by a flexible double conduit and secured to a movable mounting means adjacent to the turbine reaction blade cavities for directing a stream of air to the cavities to turn the turbine wheel;
- said movable mounting means including a transversely mounted rod for supporting the nozzles as they are moved along a radius of the turbine wheel to vary the speed ratio between the pedal crank arms and the driver wheel.
In a pedal powered amphibian vehicle equipped with conventional brakes and having a single front wheel and two rear wheels from among only one is a driving wheel;
- the improvement comprising:
- rotary air blower coupled to pedal crank arms and driven by them for creating continuous pressurized air stream;
- a flat turbine wheel provided with reaction blade cavities and coupled to the rear driver wheel for turning it and thereby moving the vehicle;
- two nozzles connected to said air blower by a flexible double conduit and secured to a movable mounting means adjacent to the turbine reaction blade cavities for directing a stream of air to the cavities to turn the turbine wheel;
- said movable mounting means including a transversely mounted rod for supporting the nozzles as they are moved along a radius of the turbine wheel to vary the speed ratio between the pedal crank arms and the driver wheel;
- said vehicle further including a storage spring means operatively associated with said driving wheel for storing energy to be subsequently imparted to said driving wheel when required.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.