Vactrain
Encyclopedia
A vactrain is a proposed, as-yet-unbuilt design for future high-speed railroad transportation. This would entail building maglev
lines through evacuated
(air-less) or partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Though the technology is currently being investigated for development of regional networks, advocates have suggested establishing vactrains for transcontinental routes to form a global network. The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move at extremely high speeds, up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), or 5–6 times the speed of sound at sea level and standard conditions, according to the Discovery Channel
's Extreme Engineering
program "Transatlantic Tunnel
".
Theoretically, vactrain tunnels could be built deep enough to pass under ocean
s, thus permitting very rapid intercontinental travel. Vactrains could also use gravity
to assist their acceleration. If such trains went as fast as predicted, the trip between London
and New York
would take less than an hour, effectively supplanting aircraft
as the world's fastest mode of public transportation.
Travel through evacuated tubes allows supersonic speed without the penalty of sonic boom
found with supersonic aircraft. The trains could operate faster than Mach 1 (at sea level) without noise. Also supersonic travel requires a large increase in propulsive power as one enters the near-sonic region. Again with reduced air pressure the speed of the onset of this effect will also increase, allowing faster speeds with lower energy requirements.
However, without major advances in tunnelling and other technology, vactrains would be prohibitively expensive. Alternatives such as elevated concrete tubes with partial vacuums have been proposed to reduce costs.
Researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University
in China are developing (in 2010) a vactrain to reach speeds of 1000 km/h (621.4 mph). They say the technology can be put into operation in 10 years.
Russian professor Boris Weinberg offered a vactrain concept in 1914 in the book Motion without friction (airless electric way) and built the first maglev prototypes in 1913.
Vactrains made headlines during the 1970s when a leading advocate, Robert M. Salter of RAND
, published a series of elaborate engineering articles in 1972 and again in 1978.
An interview with Robert Salter appeared in the LA Times (June 11, 1972). He discussed, in detail, the relative ease with which the U.S. government could build a tube shuttle system using technologies available at that time. Maglev being poorly developed at the time, he proposed steel wheels. The chamber's door to the tube would be opened, and enough air admitted behind to accelerate the train into the tube. Gravity would further accelerate the departing train down to cruise level. Rising from cruise level, the arriving train would decelerate by compressing the rarefied air ahead of it, which would be vented. Pumps at the stations would make up for losses due to friction or air escaping around the edges of the train, the train itself requiring no motor. This combination of modified (shallow) gravity train
and atmospheric railway
propulsion would consume little energy
but limit the system to subsonic speeds, hence initial routes of tens or hundreds of miles or kilometers rather than transcontinental distances were proposed.
Trains were to require no coupler
s, each car being directly welded, bolted, or otherwise firmly connected to the next, the route calling for no more bending than the flexibility of steel could easily handle. At the end of the line the train would be moved sideways into the end chamber of the return tube. The railway would have both an inner evacuated tube and an outer tunnel. At cruise depth, the space between would have enough water to float the vacuum tube, softening the ride.
A route through the Northeast Megalopolis
was laid out, with nine stations, one each in DC, Maryland
, Delaware
, Pennsylvania
, New York
, Rhode Island
, Massachusetts
, and two in Connecticut
. Commuter rail systems were mapped for the San Francisco and New York areas, the commuter version having longer, heavier trains, to be propelled less by air and more by gravity than the intercity version. The New York system was to have three lines, terminating in Babylon
, Paterson
, Huntington
, Elizabeth
, White Plains
, and St. George
.
Salter pointed out how such a system would help reduce the environmental damage being done to the atmosphere by aviation
and surface transportation. He called underground Very High Speed Transportation (tube shuttles) our nation's "logical next step". The plans were never taken to the next stage.
At the time these reports were published, national prestige was an issue as Japan
had been operating its showcase bullet train
for several years and maglev train
research was hot technology. The American Planetran would establish transcontinental subway service in the United States and provide a commute from Los Angeles
to New York City
in one hour. The tunnel would be buried to a depth of several hundred feet in solid rock formations. Construction would make use of laser
s to ensure alignment and use tungsten
probes to melt through igneous rock formations. The tunnel would maintain a partial vacuum to minimize drag
. A trip would average 3000 mi/h and subject passengers to forces up to 1.4 times that of gravity, requiring the use of gimbal
led compartments. Enormous construction costs (estimated as high as US$1 trillion) were the primary reason why Salter's proposal was never built.
Starting in the late 1970s and early '80s, the Swissmetro
was proposed to leverage the invention of the experimental German Transrapid
maglev train, and operate in large underground tunnels reduced to the pressure altitude of 68000 feet (20,726.4 m) at which the Concorde
SST was certified to fly.
In the 1980s Frank P. Davidson, a founder and chairman of the Channel Tunnel
project, and Japanese engineer Yoshihiro Kyonati (:ja:京谷好泰) tackled the transoceanic problems with a proposal to float a tube above the ocean floor, anchored with cables. The transit tube would remain at least 1000 feet (304.8 m) below the ocean surface to avoid water turbulence.
Daryl Oster patented an Evacuated Tube Transport system in 1999. His proposal uses relatively small cars that are primarily intended for personal rapid transit
.
Dr. James Powell
, former co-inventor of superconducting maglev
in the 1960s, has since 2001 led investigation of a concept for using a maglev
vactrain for space launch
(theoretically two orders of magnitude less marginal cost than present rockets), where the StarTram
proposal would have vehicles reach up to 8900 mi/h to 19600 mi/h within an acceleration tunnel (lengthy to limit g-forces
), considering boring through the ice sheet in Antarctica for lower anticipated expense than in rock.
novels, including the works of Arthur C. Clarke
(Rescue Party
, 1946), Ray Bradbury
(Fahrenheit 451
, 1950), Peter F. Hamilton
(The Night's Dawn Trilogy
), Joe Haldeman
(in his novel Buying Time), Larry Niven
(A World Out of Time
), Robert A. Heinlein
(Friday
), Jerry Yulsman
(Elleander Morning), and Jasper Fforde
(the Thursday Next
novels). Flash Gordon
(1947) and the movie Logan's Run
(1976) featured similar high-speed transport trains. The Space: 1999
TV series, featured a Lunar Vactrain. 23rd century San Francisco has one stretching across the Golden Gate Bridge
in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
(1979). Earlier Gene Roddenberry
television productions, Genesis II and Planet Earth
, featured such transport systems. A similar transportation system epitomizes the technological utopianism
of the 1950s in the song "I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)
" on Donald Fagen
's 1982 album The Nightfly
:
Maglev train
Maglev , is a system of transportation that uses magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather than using mechanical methods, such as friction-reliant wheels, axles and bearings...
lines through evacuated
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
(air-less) or partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Though the technology is currently being investigated for development of regional networks, advocates have suggested establishing vactrains for transcontinental routes to form a global network. The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move at extremely high speeds, up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), or 5–6 times the speed of sound at sea level and standard conditions, according to the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
's Extreme Engineering
Extreme Engineering
Extreme Engineering is a documentary television series that airs on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program features futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. As of April 2011, the show is airing its ninth season. Danny Forster first hosted the series in season 4 and has been...
program "Transatlantic Tunnel
Transatlantic tunnel
A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals.Using advanced technologies, speeds of are envisaged....
".
Theoretically, vactrain tunnels could be built deep enough to pass under ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s, thus permitting very rapid intercontinental travel. Vactrains could also use gravity
Gravity train
A gravity train is a theoretical means of transportation intended to go between two points on the surface of a sphere, following a straight tunnel that goes directly from one point to the other through the interior of the sphere....
to assist their acceleration. If such trains went as fast as predicted, the trip between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
would take less than an hour, effectively supplanting aircraft
Aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
as the world's fastest mode of public transportation.
Travel through evacuated tubes allows supersonic speed without the penalty of sonic boom
Sonic boom
A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...
found with supersonic aircraft. The trains could operate faster than Mach 1 (at sea level) without noise. Also supersonic travel requires a large increase in propulsive power as one enters the near-sonic region. Again with reduced air pressure the speed of the onset of this effect will also increase, allowing faster speeds with lower energy requirements.
However, without major advances in tunnelling and other technology, vactrains would be prohibitively expensive. Alternatives such as elevated concrete tubes with partial vacuums have been proposed to reduce costs.
Researchers at Southwest Jiaotong University
Southwest Jiaotong University
Southwest Jiaotong University is one of the oldest universities in mainland China.-About SWJTU:The university was originally founded at Shanhaiguan, Hebei in 1896, and it is currently located in Chengdu, Sichuan, a major city in the southwest part of the country...
in China are developing (in 2010) a vactrain to reach speeds of 1000 km/h (621.4 mph). They say the technology can be put into operation in 10 years.
History
The modern concept of a vactrain, with evacuated tubes and maglev technology, was explored in the 1910s by American engineer Robert Goddard, who designed detailed prototypes while a university student. His train would have traveled from Boston to New York in 12 minutes, averaging 1000 mi/h. The train designs were found only after Goddard's death in 1945 and his wife filed for the patents.Russian professor Boris Weinberg offered a vactrain concept in 1914 in the book Motion without friction (airless electric way) and built the first maglev prototypes in 1913.
Vactrains made headlines during the 1970s when a leading advocate, Robert M. Salter of RAND
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
, published a series of elaborate engineering articles in 1972 and again in 1978.
An interview with Robert Salter appeared in the LA Times (June 11, 1972). He discussed, in detail, the relative ease with which the U.S. government could build a tube shuttle system using technologies available at that time. Maglev being poorly developed at the time, he proposed steel wheels. The chamber's door to the tube would be opened, and enough air admitted behind to accelerate the train into the tube. Gravity would further accelerate the departing train down to cruise level. Rising from cruise level, the arriving train would decelerate by compressing the rarefied air ahead of it, which would be vented. Pumps at the stations would make up for losses due to friction or air escaping around the edges of the train, the train itself requiring no motor. This combination of modified (shallow) gravity train
Gravity train
A gravity train is a theoretical means of transportation intended to go between two points on the surface of a sphere, following a straight tunnel that goes directly from one point to the other through the interior of the sphere....
and atmospheric railway
Atmospheric railway
An atmospheric railway uses air pressure to provide power for propulsion. In one plan a pneumatic tube is laid between the rails, with a piston running in it suspended from the train through a sealable slot in the top of the tube. Alternatively, the whole tunnel may be the pneumatic tube with the...
propulsion would consume little energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
but limit the system to subsonic speeds, hence initial routes of tens or hundreds of miles or kilometers rather than transcontinental distances were proposed.
Trains were to require no coupler
Coupling (railway)
A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the railway gauge, since flexibility and convenience are maximised if all rolling stock can be coupled together.The equipment that connects the couplings to the...
s, each car being directly welded, bolted, or otherwise firmly connected to the next, the route calling for no more bending than the flexibility of steel could easily handle. At the end of the line the train would be moved sideways into the end chamber of the return tube. The railway would have both an inner evacuated tube and an outer tunnel. At cruise depth, the space between would have enough water to float the vacuum tube, softening the ride.
A route through the Northeast Megalopolis
Northeast megalopolis
The Northeast megalopolis or Boston–Washington megalopolis is the heavily urbanized area of the United States stretching from the the northern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts to the southern suburbs of Washington, D.C. On a map, the region appears almost as a perfectly straight line. As of 2000,...
was laid out, with nine stations, one each in DC, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, and two in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. Commuter rail systems were mapped for the San Francisco and New York areas, the commuter version having longer, heavier trains, to be propelled less by air and more by gravity than the intercity version. The New York system was to have three lines, terminating in Babylon
Babylon (village), New York
Babylon is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 12,615 at the 2000 census.Its official name is The Incorporated Village of Babylon...
, Paterson
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, Huntington
Huntington, New York
The Town of Huntington is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, USA. Founded in 1653, it is located on the north shore of Long Island in northwestern Suffolk County, with Long Island Sound to its north and Nassau County adjacent to the west. Huntington is part of the New York metropolitan...
, Elizabeth
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
, White Plains
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in south-central Westchester, about east of the Hudson River and northwest of Long Island Sound...
, and St. George
St. George, Staten Island
St. George is a neighborhood on the northeastern tip of Staten Island in New York City, where the Kill Van Kull enters Upper New York Bay. It is the most densely developed neighborhood on Staten Island, and the location of the administrative center for the borough and for the coterminous Richmond...
.
Salter pointed out how such a system would help reduce the environmental damage being done to the atmosphere by aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
and surface transportation. He called underground Very High Speed Transportation (tube shuttles) our nation's "logical next step". The plans were never taken to the next stage.
At the time these reports were published, national prestige was an issue as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
had been operating its showcase bullet train
Shinkansen
The , also known as THE BULLET TRAIN, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies. Starting with the Tōkaidō Shinkansen in 1964, the network has expanded to currently consist of of lines with maximum speeds of , of Mini-shinkansen with a...
for several years and maglev train
Maglev train
Maglev , is a system of transportation that uses magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather than using mechanical methods, such as friction-reliant wheels, axles and bearings...
research was hot technology. The American Planetran would establish transcontinental subway service in the United States and provide a commute from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in one hour. The tunnel would be buried to a depth of several hundred feet in solid rock formations. Construction would make use of laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s to ensure alignment and use tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
probes to melt through igneous rock formations. The tunnel would maintain a partial vacuum to minimize drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
. A trip would average 3000 mi/h and subject passengers to forces up to 1.4 times that of gravity, requiring the use of gimbal
Gimbal
A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis. A set of two gimbals, one mounted on the other with pivot axes orthogonal, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain immobile regardless of the motion of its support...
led compartments. Enormous construction costs (estimated as high as US$1 trillion) were the primary reason why Salter's proposal was never built.
Starting in the late 1970s and early '80s, the Swissmetro
Swissmetro
Swissmetro was a futuristic Swiss national transportation project using vactrain technology that went into liquidation in November 2009 because of a lack of support. Based on high-speed maglev trains travelling in low-pressure tunnels, the speeds would have been about 500 kilometres per hour.Such...
was proposed to leverage the invention of the experimental German Transrapid
Transrapid
Transrapid is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Based on a patent from 1934, planning of the Transrapid system started in 1969. The test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany was completed in 1987...
maglev train, and operate in large underground tunnels reduced to the pressure altitude of 68000 feet (20,726.4 m) at which the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
SST was certified to fly.
In the 1980s Frank P. Davidson, a founder and chairman of the Channel Tunnel
Channel Tunnel
The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
project, and Japanese engineer Yoshihiro Kyonati (:ja:京谷好泰) tackled the transoceanic problems with a proposal to float a tube above the ocean floor, anchored with cables. The transit tube would remain at least 1000 feet (304.8 m) below the ocean surface to avoid water turbulence.
Daryl Oster patented an Evacuated Tube Transport system in 1999. His proposal uses relatively small cars that are primarily intended for personal rapid transit
Personal rapid transit
Personal rapid transit , also called podcar, is a public transportation mode featuring small automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guide ways...
.
Dr. James Powell
James R. Powell
James R. Powell is an American physicist notable — together with Dr. Gordon Danby — for his work on superconducting Maglev, for which he shared the Franklin Institute "Medal 2000 for Engineering"....
, former co-inventor of superconducting maglev
Maglev
Maglev is a form of rail transport using magnetic levitation.Maglev may also refer to:* Magnetic levitation, a method by which an object is suspended using magnetic fields* MagLev , a virtual machine for the Ruby programming language...
in the 1960s, has since 2001 led investigation of a concept for using a maglev
Maglev
Maglev is a form of rail transport using magnetic levitation.Maglev may also refer to:* Magnetic levitation, a method by which an object is suspended using magnetic fields* MagLev , a virtual machine for the Ruby programming language...
vactrain for space launch
Space launch
Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the ground at the start of a flight...
(theoretically two orders of magnitude less marginal cost than present rockets), where the StarTram
StarTram
StarTram is a proposal for a maglev space launch system. The initial Generation 1 facility would be cargo only, launching from a mountain peak at 3 km to 7 km altitude with an evacuated tube staying at local surface level, raising ≈150,000 tons to orbit annually...
proposal would have vehicles reach up to 8900 mi/h to 19600 mi/h within an acceleration tunnel (lengthy to limit g-forces
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
), considering boring through the ice sheet in Antarctica for lower anticipated expense than in rock.
Popular culture
Vactrains have occasionally appeared in science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novels, including the works of Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
(Rescue Party
Rescue Party
"Rescue Party" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in Astounding Science Fiction in May 1946. It was his first story that he sold, though not the first actually published. It was republished in Sir Arthur’s second collection, Reach for Tomorrow and also appears in The Collected...
, 1946), Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
(Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. The novel presents a future American society where reading is outlawed and firemen start fires to burn books...
, 1950), Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton is a British author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004, his works had sold over two million copies worldwide.- Biography :...
(The Night's Dawn Trilogy
The Night's Dawn Trilogy
British author Peter F. Hamilton's The Night's Dawn Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels: The Reality Dysfunction , The Neutronium Alchemist , and The Naked God...
), Joe Haldeman
Joe Haldeman
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...
(in his novel Buying Time), Larry Niven
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven / ˈlæri ˈnɪvən/ is an American science fiction author. His best-known work is Ringworld , which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics...
(A World Out of Time
A World Out of Time
A World Out of Time is a science fiction novel by Larry Niven and published in 1976. It is set outside the Known Space universe of many of Niven's stories, but is otherwise fairly representative of his 1970s hard science fiction novels...
), Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
(Friday
Friday (novel)
Friday is a 1982 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It is the story of a female "artificial person," the titular character, genetically engineered to be stronger, faster, smarter, and generally better than normal humans...
), Jerry Yulsman
Jerry Yulsman
Jerry Yulsman was an American novelist and a photographer best known for his photographs of Jack Kerouac, notably the cover illustration on Joyce Johnson's memoir Minor Characters....
(Elleander Morning), and Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...
(the Thursday Next
Thursday Next
Thursday Next is the main protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was first introduced in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on July 19, 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. , the series comprises six books, in two...
novels). Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (serial)
Flash Gordon is a 1936 science fiction film serial. Told in 13 installments, it was the first screen adventure for the comic-strip character Flash Gordon, and tells the story of his first visit to the planet Mongo and his encounter with the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless. Buster Crabbe, Jean...
(1947) and the movie Logan's Run
Logan's Run (1976 film)
Logan's Run is a 1976 science fiction film based on the novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. It depicts a dystopian future society in which population and the consumption of resources are managed and maintained in equilibrium by the simple expediency of killing...
(1976) featured similar high-speed transport trains. The Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
TV series, featured a Lunar Vactrain. 23rd century San Francisco has one stretching across the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
in Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
(1979). Earlier Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
television productions, Genesis II and Planet Earth
Planet Earth (TV pilot)
Planet Earth was a science fiction television movie that was created by Gene Roddenberry, written by Roddenberry and Juanita Bartlett . It first aired on April 23, 1974 on the ABC network, and starred John Saxon as Dylan Hunt. It was presented as a pilot for what was hoped to be a new weekly...
, featured such transport systems. A similar transportation system epitomizes the technological utopianism
Technological utopianism
Technological utopianism refers to any ideology based on the belief that advances in science and technology will eventually bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian ideal...
of the 1950s in the song "I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)
I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World)
"I.G.Y. " is a song written and performed by American songwriter, singer and musician Donald Fagen. It was the first track of his 1982 debut solo album The Nightfly, and was released as a single, charting on the Billboard Hot 100, Mainstream Rock and Adult Contemporary charts.- Background :Fagen,...
" on Donald Fagen
Donald Fagen
Donald Jay Fagen is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, lead singer, and the principal songwriter of the rock band Steely Dan ....
's 1982 album The Nightfly
The Nightfly
The Nightfly is the first solo album by Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen, released in 1982. It was one of the first fully digital recordings of popular music...
:
- You've got to admit it—
- At this point in time, that it's clear...
- The future looks bright
- On that train all graphiteGraphiteThe mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
and glitterGlitterGlitter describes an assortment of very small pieces of copolymer plastics, aluminum foil, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, bismuth oxychloride or other materials painted in metallic, neon and iridescent colors to reflect light in a sparkling spectrum... - Undersea by rail
- Ninety minutes from New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... - Well, by '76, we'll be A-OK!
See also
- Atmospheric railwayAtmospheric railwayAn atmospheric railway uses air pressure to provide power for propulsion. In one plan a pneumatic tube is laid between the rails, with a piston running in it suspended from the train through a sealable slot in the top of the tube. Alternatively, the whole tunnel may be the pneumatic tube with the...
- SwissmetroSwissmetroSwissmetro was a futuristic Swiss national transportation project using vactrain technology that went into liquidation in November 2009 because of a lack of support. Based on high-speed maglev trains travelling in low-pressure tunnels, the speeds would have been about 500 kilometres per hour.Such...
- Transatlantic tunnelTransatlantic tunnelA transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals.Using advanced technologies, speeds of are envisaged....
- StarTramStarTramStarTram is a proposal for a maglev space launch system. The initial Generation 1 facility would be cargo only, launching from a mountain peak at 3 km to 7 km altitude with an evacuated tube staying at local surface level, raising ≈150,000 tons to orbit annually...
- Pneumatic tubePneumatic tubePneumatic tubes are systems in which cylindrical containers are propelled through a network of tubes by compressed air or by partial vacuum...
- Evacuated Tube Transport
External links
- YouTube Video of 6500 km/h (4000 mph) Vactrain models
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute page discussing Goddard's achievements
- Evacuated Tube Transportation Technologies
- Evacuated Tube Transportation Technologies alternative site
- Vac Trains at Orion's Arm
- Rail Journal
- Popular science
- Hydrogen Tube Vehicle
- China Plans 1,000 KPH Super Train