Liquid air may be entering the upswing section of a Gartner hype cycle, a phenomenon expressed in engagingly pseudo-Buddhist terms. Following stage one, 'the technology trigger' - in this case the development of the isothermal expansion process in the Dearman liquid air engine - new concepts reach a 'peak of inflated expectations', which is then followed by a 'trough of disillusionment', when experiments fail to deliver as quickly as, government and the media would like, before moving on to, and hopefully up, the 'slope of enlightenment' to the 'plateau of productivity'.
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