Ultra Hybrid Vehicle Which Could Rule The Skies, The Land And The Seas

Inspired by the magnificent Batmobile, engineers from Cornell University have manufactured a hybrid material that exhibits the stiffness of a metal or the softness of rubber as per requirement. The group ultimately aims to devise an automobile which changes its type from an airplane to a submarine at ease. This futuristic vehicle has a skeleton and soft mass on it which changes shape like an octopus.

Professor Rob Shepherd explained that their research product combines the rigidity and load bearing capacity of humans with a shape shifting property. He further said that the hybrid has been generated from a soft alloy named Field's metal with a porous silicone foam. This particular material was chosen because of its low melting point (144 degrees Fahrenheit) and a no lead property. The product is also customized to be biocompatible.


The processing of the material requires elastomer foam to be poured inside the molten metal. After that, the mixture is passed through a vacuum chamber which removes air from it. Foam, having a 2 mm pore diameter can be manipulated to create desired designs. When the material is heated above 144 degrees, it becomes malleable but when cooled it regains its stiffness and performs in a perfect manner.

The complete research report was published in the “Advanced materials” journal. The work is jointly supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Watch the Metal foam Hybrid Auto:

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