Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
The point is that the Stirling-electric hybrid DID work. For Kamen to take credit for it as an INVENTION (rather than development) is like Boeing trying to claim that they invented the airplane.
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Boeing claiming to invent the airplane would be like Kamen claiming to invent the automobile, which he's not.
GM had the development, they had the capability (or maybe they didn't, because they didn't put the engine in the car - iono), they never had a working prototype. Not following through was pretty stupid of GM, in my opinion. If the XP-883 was going to have a Stirling engine and didn't, it wasn't the first.
Here's popsci's original write up - click on page thumnails.
For thoroughness, here's the referenced Car Craft article on the Stir-Lec 1 that's probably more pertinent.
. Okay, so they had a drawing, which is nice and all - but I've got notebooks full of idea sketches and drawings and plenty of documentation of failed prototypes. This was very likely a case were GM's great idea came far before the technology was available to realize and execute it. I'm sure it didn't help that, in 1969, oil was cheap (too bad it wasn't ready for '73 though).
Kamen released the first working prototype. He said, "It's the world's first Stirling hybrid electric car." Unless such a vehicle was working elsewhere at an earlier time, I see no problem with the accuracy/validity of this statement.