the dreams and drawings of the early balloonists (pilots were called professors)

 pretty good idea for early balloonists... an escape parachute for the basket and passengers. Early on there was no idea what to do once you got it off the gorund, just go for the ride and hope you had a soft landing

all found on http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?trg=1&word=Balloons%20%2D%2D%20Pictorial%20works&s=3&notword=&d=&c=&f=2&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&num=100&imgs=20&pNum=

two good ideas I'd like to see in the world of street signs

I didn't keep track of what Tumbler I found the top one at, but the bottom is from a great idea at http://www.ted.com/

Segs 4 Vets, Mobilizing America's Heroes

The below seat can be seen at http://www.segseat.com/ and purchased for about 500 bucks

Just check the seating custom changes... this is what enables anyone with leg problems to utilize a Segway and have upright mobility. Both of the seats will flip up or down to get out of the way when getting on or off the Segway.

Seventeen severely wounded warriors received a custom modified Segway, the personal mobility device, at a ceremony on the forward deck of the historic USS Midway.

Segs4Vets recipients use the Segway instead of a wheelchair and say the Segway allows them to stand tall in their prosthetic legs, improves their mobility and lets them appear less disabled in public.

The recipients included nine soldiers, two Marines, two national guardsmen, two airmen and two sailors. They come from Guam , Washington, D.C. and a dozen states, including California. Many are still undergoing treatment and rehabilitation at the Naval Medical Center San Diego.
Segs4Vets, a project of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, a non-profit organization rated as one of America’s best charities, (one of 2,000 out of 1,000,000 charities in America) returned to San Diego for the third time to make the presentation.

The recipients sustained serious injuries which limit their mobility during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Segway dramatically improves personal mobility for military service members who lost limbs to amputation or suffer from spinal cord injuries, neurological injuries and soft tissue damage.

``Those who become disabled while serving our nation deserve the best tools available to live productive and fulfilling lives,’’ said Jerry Kerr, president and founder of DRAFT. ``The Segway has proven its value to more than 400 wounded warriors and we are delighted to provide this device to these brave military service members to help them fulfill their dreams.’’

Several former recipients who attended the ceremony included John Hyland, a former Army soldier and trained opera singer who will sang the National Anthem at the ceremony, and Kortney Clemons who is training for the Paralympic Games at the Olympic Training Center in San Diego. Two of the earliest recipients used their Segways to complete undergraduate studies at Georgetown University and are now attending law school.

More than 33,000 men and women in uniform have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of hostilities. The Segway is not covered by military medical insurance.

Segs4Vets, created in late 2005, is run entirely by volunteers as part of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT), a 501c3 created to represent people with disabilities who refuse to be defined by their disability and whose passionate enthusiasm for participation in life’s activities is supported by Universal Design and new and emerging technologies. The organization is a member of Military, Veterans & Patriotic Service Organizations of America and has been certified as one of the best charities in America by the Independent Charities Seal of Excellence, an honor accorded fewer than 2,000 of the more than one million public charities in the United States.

DRAFT is the only organization to ever receive a blanket waiver from the U.S. military allowing a gift in excess to $1,000 to severely injured active duty military force members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Czysz C1 990 MotoGP racebike. Innovation hasn't happened in motorcycles to this extant in, perhaps, decades

Image via: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/oped/tradition-business-model-motoczysz/

40-year-old American architect Michael Czysz from Portland, Oregon was an architectural designer by trade, a damn good one, he heads Architropolis which has done work for celebs Lenny Kravitz and Cindy Crawford.

But his father and grandfather were motorcycle mechanics, and Micheal wanted to make his mark in the MotoGP world, and he has now done more, he's invented a new engine design, new front forks and front suspension design, new chassis design, and engineered and manufactured it to full functionality, perhaps even competiveness. Definitely breaking apart from the paradigm of prior engine design, and pulling a fully realized racing motorcycle from paper to race track in about 3 years.

HD Theater on cable tv had a one hour show about all of this, and I was blown away at the total single handed design of a previously unheard of motor. Then they showed how Michael drew up a new design of all the other things I've mentioned.

But think about just the one part, the engine.

A new design. When was the last new design in engines of any kind engineered or produced?

The Dual over head cam 427 Ford in the 60's? The Wankel (rotary engine) in the 70's? It took about 10 years of GM and other companies putting full engineer teams at work to make a rotary engine actually work, and then Mazda to perfect it. . . but Michael designed, engineered, built, and perfected his split crank counter rotating inline 4 cylinder engine... in months. Start to finish, paper to combustion, in months.

Then he puts this inline with the wheels, countering gyroscopic torque that causes wheelies, and it also doesn't screw around with the bike's rolling left or right when turning.

To read a real motorcycle journalists description of it, and thoughts on the ride he had: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/firstrides/122_0507_radical_c1_990/index.html

For an update on what happened after the C1 990, and how MotoGP reducing the engine size from 990cc to 800cc, read this http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/oped/tradition-business-model-motoczysz/

July 2011 update http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/06/motoczysz-e1pc/

Innovative and awesome, nothing gets me happier than to see unlimited genius making things work or look better

that torch ... bitchin!

The far out looking intake and exhaust were the results of hands on engineering progressively improving the 1/4 mile times of that big 'ol Plymouth

All 3 via: http://zelastchancegaragedu78.blogspot.com/

Motorized creeper

via:

Things that old busses can be used for, incredible ingenuity out there!

Via: http://thereifixedit.com/

Ever heard of Norm's Henway? I just found it in the late 70's Hot Rod

I can't find where I pulled the above image from, Brandon Flannery took the photo, and says the image was probably from the HAMB / JalopyJournal

It's not like Gray wrote, (click on the image for a very large readable size) this wasn't a restoration, the Henway is a creation. A play on the old joke, what's a Henway... about 3 pounds.

The rest of these images are from the Jalopy Journal and obviously not the same vehicle

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121424&page=2

I just noticed that all 3 of these appear to have different rear windows

Two stroke Pogo stick, and nitro roller skates, the most unusual things from the mind of Von Dutch

The above was first published in the Nov 1955 Hot Rod, but I don't have that one, and instead found it in the 25th anniversary issue of Hot Rod

Above image, and for more info go to: http://chopcult.com/news/blogs/von-dutch-monday-xiii12-21-09-22-06-02.html

For more of Von Dutch's inventive stuff, see: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/von-dutch-expert-mechanic.html

Greatest innovation in bumpers ever

This is the 1964 Indy race car of Smokey Yunick, named the Hurst Floor Shifter Special... a momentary loss of traction caused it to run into a wall and never get into the race, Bobby Johns was driving
Via: http://forum.exile.fr/viewtopic.php?pid=157789

Survival of the innovator. A broken 2CV, no welder, no power tools, and Emil Leray made a motorcycle while stranded in the Moroccan desert, in 12 days

Photos of Daniel Denis of 2CV magazine and full story in http://chameaudacier.free.fr/moto1.html

Via: http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-favorite-hero-emil-leray.html

Visionaries and revolutionaries don't copy the paradigm, they break it. Putting the engine in the wheel

above via: http://tukker.blogspot.com/

above, 1922 Megola Sport

Via: Visual Gratification: http://big-diesel.blogspot.com/2009/08/megalo-concept-engine-on-wheel.html

In 1935 a group of five German engineers named Killinger and Freund from Munich started to design a more streamlined and modified version of the German Megola front-wheel drive motorcycle that had won many motorcycle races in the 1920s. The work took three years to complete but the result was impressive. The engine displacement stayed the same as the Megola at 600cc but was much lighter and more simplified than a standard 100cc motorcycle of the time.

The motorcycle featured a three cylinder two-stroke engine built right into the front wheel, transmission and clutch, with more comfortable front and rear suspension. Streamlining was important as aerodynamics was the first priority of the team who wanted all the moving parts covered, dirt and mud protection, and an elegant style. Other priorities were that the motorcycle be multi-cylinder and possess front-wheel-drive. Their design was a success.

http://greyfalcon.us/Killinger%20and%20Freund%20Motorcycle.htm
Also: http://thenewcaferacersociety.blogspot.com/2008/08/killinger-freund.html

Impressive, stunningly impressive demonstration of perfect product performance

I've never seen how radiator stop leak works before, and this is so simple... marvelous demonstration rig.

6th product down this page: http://justicebrothers.com/pages/products/news_new_products.htm

as if any other testiment was needed, you could read: http://www.paulhackmann.com/viewpost.php?idnumber=11

Frankentrike was at Escondido

Cool guy, great idea, cool trike, terrific addition to Cruisin Grand

It's either pedal powered of that engine (leaf blower?)

Look at the side view mirror and the license plate

When they tell you "it'll never fly" don't listen to them...

What you create may not be the F22 Raptor, but it may be the first step in the "Wright" direction

Cool rims

The above 2007 Toyota FT-HS rim is designed to increase the air rushing though the brake disc

Acrylic rims.

Lars-Erik Fisk, artist with a vision of what things would be like if they were round, one of my favorite posts revisited and upgraded

the barn ball

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/02/vw-bus-ball-lars-erik-fisk-sculptor.html

so far all mentions of this VW Bus Ball are just copying the photos from http://oblique.csail.mit.edu/Album/Shellenbarger/Shellenbarger_Summer_2001/Volkswagen2.jpg.html but without giving credit to the photographer, nice guy named Thouis, who told me I can use his photos, and only requested that I "Mark them as creative commons licensed, and please attribute Lars-Erik Fisk as the sculptor"

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/remember-vw-bus-ball-ny-times-has-2.html