I started driving in 1971. A good friend of mine drove a 1962 Nova convertible. It had a 327 small block and a Powerglide transmission. It was real fun to drive and my first experience with a two speed automatic transmission. This is how I first learned about planetary gear systems. In low gear, a band stops the ring gear to provide the gear reduction and is released to provide the high range or one to one. With ten years of service and high mileage, after towing a heavy load or a few power- brake launches the band would start to slip.

In this same time period Disk brakes where introduced, were two pads are pinched together to slow or stop a ring connected to the tires. This is called a braking disk. The part that holds the pads is called a caliper.

The innovation that I am proposing is to incorporate the two, by replacing the band with pads and a caliper, and add a braking disk to the ring gear. Calipers and pads can be added all the way around the braking disk.

With the advent of electronics, you can add flying magnets to the input shaft, the ring gear, and the output shaft. Utilizing a CPU to count the turns of the shafts and ring gear, hydraulic pressure to the calipers can be regulated to control the output speed of the output shaft.

This system provides smooth gear changes and combined with an ABS braking system could eliminate all traction loss. This system could also be incorporated into any application where you need to control output speed such as generators and windmills.