Flywheel passes first crash test                                           23rd October 2007


On the 29th August 2007 Flybrid Systems believe that it became the first company in the world to demonstrate that a high-speed spinning flywheel can survive a crash test of the severity used for Formula One frontal impact testing.

The test procedure consisted of spinning the flywheel up to its full 64,500 RPM top speed before disconnecting the drive portion of the spin test rig and crashing the complete test chamber. Inside the test chamber was a F1 car representative light alloy housing within which was mounted the F1 car representative 400 kJ flywheel.

The test was performed at the Cranfield Impact Centre, a recognised F1 crash test facility, and involved a peak deceleration level of 'more than 20g'. The exact level cannot be disclosed as the profile of deceleration was matched to the actual crash test data from a clients F1 car.

After the test the flywheel was still spinning at high speed and was completely undamaged.