throttling up a 430-km/h maglev to link Shanghai and its airport

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jok
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throttling up a 430-km/h maglev to link Shanghai and its airport

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Faster Than A Speeding Bullet Train
China is throttling up a 430-km/h magnetically levitated train to link Shanghai and its airport

Philip Holmer, 01 Aug 2003
image[1].jpg
Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library ... /image.jpg Accessed: 2021-07-30
Ah, but what a ride it was. The train is the fastest by far on the planet, and it literally flies while suspended and propelled by magnetic forces. Built in China by a trio of German companies and the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co., it reaches 430 km/h (268 mi/h)—130 km/h faster than Japan’s famous bullet train. And even as it goes faster than any commercial vehicle without wings, the Chinese train is smoother and quieter than Amtrak’s wheel-on-rail Acela—the state of the art in the United States—which pokes along when it can at a maximum 240 km/h.

Could this be the dawning, at last, of the long-awaited age of magnetic-levitation (“maglev”) trains?

[...]

No question, maglev can move people quickly. It also accelerates and decelerates quickly—up to 1.5 meters per second per second. At this rate, a maglev train can reach 300 km/h in around 5 km, compared with 30 km for a high-speed train. Thus, on routes of less than 1000 km, a maglev train could match gate-to-gate air-travel times.

Maglev is less susceptible to weather delays than flying or driving. And it is relatively quiet. Vibration levels on Amtrak’s Acela train at its top 240-km/h speed are much higher than on a maglev at 400 km/h, according to a DOT study.

Maglev provides a quiet ride because it is a noncontact system. The usual noisemakers are gone.

[...]

On New Year’s Eve 2002, Zhu Rongji, then premier of China, and chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany were aboard for the first demonstration ride that reached 430 km/h. For Zhu, the ride must have been of particular interest: he is an electrical engineering graduate of Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/faster-than-a ... llet-train Accessed: 2021-07-30
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jok

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