A research about super-speed trains was launched by CASIC
The China Aerospace Science and Industry Cooperation (CASIC) announced on Wednesday that it has launched research into floating trains which may one day be able to reach 4,000 kilometers per hour.
At this speed, the roughly 1,000 kilometer-journey from Beijing to Shanghai, which now takes 4.5 hours via China’s high-speed rail, could be shortened to around 15 minutes.
The signature of the CASIC super-speed trains
The CASIC super-speed trains are designed to reached a superfast speed of 4,000 km/h, which is supersonic flight technology was combined with rail transportation to develop a new generation of trains.
The trains are supposed to have the ability to “fly above the rails” with magnetic levitation technology and travel through vacuum pipelines free of friction，without using fossil fuel.
However，the line building plan concerning about aboveground or underground hasn’t been determined yet.
The project will be carried out step by step.
The detailed timetable of the ambitious project has not yet been released, but is said to be split into three steps: 0 to 1,000 km/h, 2,000 km/h and 4,000 km/h.
The first stage of the company’s plan will be to create an intercity network of these “flying trains” operating at 1,000 km/h.
In the second phase, this network would be extended and the max speed of the pods increased to 2,000 km/h.
Finally, in the third stage, the speed would be boosted all the way up to 4,000 km/h — five times the speed of civil aviation aircraft today.
The works have been completed.
The company is working with more than 20 domestic and foreign institutes on the project, adding that technicians are striving to develop key technologies like those used for building an elevated tube.
Besides, the nation has also tested an ultrafast bullet train that is able to travel around 600 km/h, but its designers said it was built to test next-generation railway technologies rather than for commercial operation.
Concerns about the practicability of this plan.
Air resistance“is a large part of the rolling resistance”of a normal train. If the plan is to carried out，the resistance must be taken into the consideration.
The principle behind all of super-speed trains is similar: pump all of the air out of a sealed tunnel and then shoot trains, or some sort of transport capsule, through them.
Therefore, the energy input will be extremely huge, making the energy supplement system exceedingly complex. And all the manufacture work including material and engine should be match the extreme conditions. All the works are still on their way.
