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Trans-Atlantic MagLev

Trans-Atlantic MagLev

Posted 11.12.04 at 3:23 pm 0 Comments

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Vacuum Tube Train
Mika Grondahl
A 4,000-mph magnetically levitated train could allow you to have lunch in Manhattan and still get to London in time for the theater, despite the 5-hour time difference. It’s not impossible: Norway has studied neutrally buoyant tunnels (concluding that they’re feasible, though expensive), and Shanghai is running maglev trains to its airport. But supersonic speeds require another critical step: eliminating the air—and therefore air friction—from the train’s path. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel apart.
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by Mika Grondahl
Mika Grondahl
One proposed route for the transatlantic maglev train passes through northeastern Canada before barreling toward the British Isles and continental Europe, briefly kissing terra firma on Greenland and Iceland. Because aboveground sections would be cheaper to build than their underwater counterparts, such a route would be more economical than a direct shot through the Atlantic.
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