Evacuated Tube #Transport Could Revolutionize How We Travel
http://singularityhub.com/2012/04/26/from-d-c-to-beijing-in-2-hours-evacuated-tube-transport-could-revolu
What it is is Evacuated Tube Transport, or ETT. ETT combines the efficiency of maglev trains, already in use in Europe and Asia, with the efficiency of moving through an airless environment. Maglev is short for magnetic levitation. (...) ETT does the maglevs one better by sending its levitated capsules down guider tubes out of which the air has been sucked, creating a vacuum. (...) there is virtually no resistance in the evacuated tube, once the train gets up to speed it can just coast. Not only does ETT lack an engine – and a need for fossil fuel propulsion – but because it can glide along almost indefinitely through the vacuum it takes full advantage of Newton’s age-old “an object in motion stays in motion.” (...) seriously fast. If ETT does see the light of day it is estimated to travel at a top speed of 4,000 mph. That’s more than mach 5! More than only the fastest record-breaking jets! At 4,000 mph, a trip from Washington DC to Beijing would take just two hours.
http://singularityhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/image24.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=McpWcn-1RZU
