[:0]Check out this possibility…http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-03/NS-Ft-0703100.phphttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-03/NS-Ft-0703100.php
Possibly has most of the real dissadvantages of MegLev, but will wait and see.
It is an interesting area of research but one very real limitation which will be encountered is to be able to stay in ground effect. Should the train gain enough altitude it will go out of ground effect and the return to earth could be very abrupt and probably with disasterous consequences. Another issue is the speed of the relative wind over the wing creating the “ground effect.” If there is a gust of wind it will suddenly increase lift, the train will gain altitude suddenly…
Should that happen re-read the second sentence.
IT has already been done, in fact TRAINS did an article on it some time back. O&W crew with an F UNIT. Just like the Wright brothers. short flight but airborne it was.
Ruskies tried this with ground effect seaplanes, big failure. Had a nasty tendancy to belly flop when the waves were bigger than a ripple, airflow under was disturbed and it would either rise or drop, when it fell, it bellyflopped into the water.
If you wanted to do something like this. Wouldnt it be simpler to just use hovercraft fans to lift the train on a cushion of air and use a monorail like guide system?
The French tried this in the 1960s with the Bertin “Aerotrain”, which used the hovercraft principle to provide a non-speed dependent air cushion. As is well known, the built the TGV high speed trains instead, because conventional rail resistance is so small anyway, and at speed, air resistance is the main problem and the main consumer of propulsion energy, so it doesn’t matter whether you use wheels or not, the laws of physics still hit you the same way.
M636C
I don’t think any energy savings here would come by reducing friction. Steel wheels and steel rails minimize rolling friction. But it must take plenty of juice to leviate a maglev, overcoming the train’s weight. If that could be done mainly by aerodynamic lift, it could reduce electricity requirements at sufficient speeds to what’s necessary for propulsion.
They already made flying trains…they’re called airplanes.