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 improve driver safety. The new cars used today are a major departure from the shop-built chassis of the past. They are a spec car, purchased from a single manufacturer, and use significantly higher technology than any past generation of car in the sport’s history. Safety was a factor in the design from the beginning, but concussion remains a serious risk in the sport. The cars are safer, but closed head injuries are still damaging, even ending driver careers. Why? Jim Anderton comments. 

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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 world’s leading automaker and a pioneer in the development of hybrids, many expected Toyota to take that expertise and use it to make a play for EV leadership. Is Toyota lagging in EV development, or does the firm have a longer-term strategy in play? Host and commentator Jim Anderton discusses the issues. 

Want to watch this podcast as a video? End of the Line is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as This Week in Engineering, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

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 all time. 

Want to watch this podcast as a video? End of the Line is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as This Week in Engineering, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

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 Stoner’s original AR 15 design. Both are marvels of mass production mechanical engineering, but the rifles sold on the civilian market are a different thing, describes Jim Anderton. 

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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 research is ongoing into alternate propulsion technologies, bio-fuels and alternate fuels such as ammonia. Ammonia has sparked recent interest as a jet fuel, but Jim Anderton comments on how the disadvantages may outweigh the advantage.

Want to watch this podcast as a video? End of the Line is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as This Week in Engineering, Designing the Future, and, Manufacturing the Future.

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 mph just skimming the surface of the water. Although the design promised long-range, heavy payload and high-speed, curiously little development of this concept occurred in the West. This appears to be changing, however, and the Virginia-based Flying Ship Company has designed an autonomous, electrically powered wing in ground effect drone for light cargo delivery.

Both commercial customers and DARPA have shown interest, and modern materials combined with advanced engineering design tools may make the wing in ground effect vehicle the cargo-carrying solution that combines high-speed with low cost.

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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.

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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 moved from a technology that carries safety risks to one that carries financial risks. The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Energy Impact Center has developed a nuclear reactor design that promises to de-risk nuclear power production in a novel way: with an open-source design.

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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 products are not available, not affordable or both.

Electric vehicles are one way to tackle the transportation component of the emissions issue, and governments around the world are anxious to convince motorists to make the switch. One of the tools they are using are generous subsidies for EV buyers. But are those subsidies an effective way to tackle the issue? Jim Anderton doesn’t think so.

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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 test programs have failures, but multi-motor, multirotor drone designs have different failure modes and reliability problems compared to conventional helicopters. It’s a tough challenge. Jim Anderton comments.

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