Levitating Plane-Train Makes Mass Transit Cool

[n2doc]

By Wired UK May 12, 2011 | 1:30 pm


By Mark Brown, Wired UK

The future of mass transit may be a whole lot cooler than you think.

Japanese researchers rolled into the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai with a scale model of a robotic plane-train that levitates on a cushion of air. It’s essentially a plane, complete with stubby wings, a handful of propellers and a tail, that flies perilously close to the ground.

The plane-train rides within a concrete channel. And because it has to deal with pitch, roll and yaw as well as the throttle, the research team, led by Tohoku University assistant professor Yusuke Sugahara, built a prototype that autonomously stabilizes its three axes.
So far, the team has a scale model that wobbles down a runway. Once the researchers perfect the idea, they plan to build a larger, manned prototype and a concrete channel to see how it does at 200 km/h (124 mph).

more

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/05/robotic-levitating-ground-effect-plane-train/

[NewJeffCT]

1. They already have mag-lev trains running in China

that run 400km/h. Sounds pretty cool, though.

[phantom power]

2. Is the potential payoff worth the added expense and difficulty?

Good old fashioned tracks seem a lot easier to work with. How much drag can they possibly reduce with this approach?

[AtheistCrusader]

9. It's an Ekranoplane, or wing in ground effect.

Pretty cool idea actually. The aquatic variants need massive amounts of thrust to get up above the bow wave, and fly out of the water. I always thought, well, why not get them airborne on land, and then let them fly over the water, and just not land in the water at all?

This is going one step further and putting it on a captive rail, which also means, it can be powered electrically.

[buddysmellgood]

3. That looks really expensive.

[n2doc]

4. So's maglev n/t

[buddysmellgood]

5. I'm thinking the concrete channel and the small number of passengers

it appear to accommodate make this less practical than maglev.

[n2doc]

6. I think this is just a proof of concept prototype

I would imagine that it could be scaled up.

The bigger problem with any fast-moving train in the US is the fact that we have idiots out there who would try and toss things in front of the train. Not that we don't have problems with present trains and derailments, but something going 300-400 mph is a whole different level of problem.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Doesn't need a concrete channel -- just use a captive rail.

i.e. steal from monorail designs.

All the wings do is provide lift, decreasing friction to very low levels. It's wings on a monorail, or rather, it should be. And thus MUCH cheaper than maglev.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. It's using the 'ground effect' - for which the wings need to be close to a flat surface

of which the coolest example has been the Caspian Sea Monster. And the sides of the channel look as though they are using the same effect to help steer it. A concrete channel won't be all that expensive - the load will be nicely spread, as opposed to wheeled vehicles which concentrate force in the small contact patch, so the wear on the concrete will be negligible, and it won't need much strength.

I'd wonder what happens if the vehicle does touch the side, though - eg if something goes wrong during cornering. It looks a lot more problematic than a train touching its wheel flanges against the track.

On edit: the picture does look as though there may be tiny side wheels, which may explain how it avoids crashing into the sides. Those, then, take the place of your captive rail, while the ground effect produces most of the sideways force.