Part of the Mass Transit Research Museum on display at the Pueblo Historical Aircraft Society museum.
This prototype, experimental air cushion vehicle cost $10 million to develop. Designed to ride on a cushion of air over a magnetic force track arrangement this trolley has the capability of carrying 60 passengers at 150 mph. Propelled by a pollution-free LIM (Linear Induction Motor) , it has air intakes which suggest a BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster)-a long-time denizen of science-fiction stories.
In the later half of the 1960's, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) sponsored aerospace companies to develop mass transit prototypes to meet growing transportation needs for urban areas. The UMTA also encouraged foreign competition to enter America's mass transit market because of the country's undercapacity to meet perceived future market needs.
In 1970, Rohr Industries, Inc. (with its aerospace division based in Chula Vista, California) chose to develop an Aerotrain for the project.
Jean Bertin, a French engineer who had already developed and tested the first Aerotrains in France during the 1960's, licensed his hovercraft technology to Rohr Industries, Inc. The aerospace engineers at Rohr made improvements to the French design and came up with a modern Aerotrain marvel of their own.
Their Aerotrain was a tracked air-cushion vehicle (TACV) designed for sixty passengers and could travel at 150 mph. This electric vehicle floated on air to provide a very smooth ride and was propelled by a linear induction motor (LIM) using a monorail for lateral guidance. When not hovering on air, the Aerotrain could rest on its skid rails or on retractable wheels for rolling on.
Rohr Industries, Inc.'s Aerotrain was competing at the time with Grumman Aerospace Corp.'s and Garrett Corp.'s vehicles for a contract bid with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (the U.S. Department of Transportation ended up taking over the bidding process) which was looking for a successful high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) system. Of the three, Rohr's was a finished design ready for commercial use. The other two HSGT vehicles were still in their experimental phase.
The oil crisis in 1973 would eventually make the Aerotrain very expensive to operate and the death of Jean Bertin (who owned the patents) in 1975 sealed the fate of any future Aerotrain development. And the fact that funding from the UMTA had ceased didn't much help things either. Soon after, TIME Magazine published an article on the fate of Rohr Industries, Inc.
This prototype, experimental air cushion vehicle cost $10 million to develop. Designed to ride on a cushion of air over a magnetic force track arrangement this trolley has the capability of carrying 60 passengers at 150 mph. Propelled by a pollution-free LIM (Linear Induction Motor) , it has air intakes which suggest a BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster)-a long-time denizen of science-fiction stories.
In the later half of the 1960's, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) sponsored aerospace companies to develop mass transit prototypes to meet growing transportation needs for urban areas. The UMTA also encouraged foreign competition to enter America's mass transit market because of the country's undercapacity to meet perceived future market needs.
In 1970, Rohr Industries, Inc. (with its aerospace division based in Chula Vista, California) chose to develop an Aerotrain for the project.
Jean Bertin, a French engineer who had already developed and tested the first Aerotrains in France during the 1960's, licensed his hovercraft technology to Rohr Industries, Inc. The aerospace engineers at Rohr made improvements to the French design and came up with a modern Aerotrain marvel of their own.
Their Aerotrain was a tracked air-cushion vehicle (TACV) designed for sixty passengers and could travel at 150 mph. This electric vehicle floated on air to provide a very smooth ride and was propelled by a linear induction motor (LIM) using a monorail for lateral guidance. When not hovering on air, the Aerotrain could rest on its skid rails or on retractable wheels for rolling on.
Rohr Industries, Inc.'s Aerotrain was competing at the time with Grumman Aerospace Corp.'s and Garrett Corp.'s vehicles for a contract bid with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (the U.S. Department of Transportation ended up taking over the bidding process) which was looking for a successful high-speed ground transportation (HSGT) system. Of the three, Rohr's was a finished design ready for commercial use. The other two HSGT vehicles were still in their experimental phase.
The oil crisis in 1973 would eventually make the Aerotrain very expensive to operate and the death of Jean Bertin (who owned the patents) in 1975 sealed the fate of any future Aerotrain development. And the fact that funding from the UMTA had ceased didn't much help things either. Soon after, TIME Magazine published an article on the fate of Rohr Industries, Inc.
Land - Rail Links: www.shonner.com
By: kjfitz
No no no! The entire hovertrain concept has a single fatal flaw that doomed all of the projects.
Imagine the train at rest with the hover pads turned on. The air flows down out of the pad and escapes around the outside of the pad. Now imagine that train moving forward slowly. The air at the back of the pad is "left behind" as the pad moves away. Now imagine the train moving forward at speed. The air is constantly being left behind.
So you need lots and lots of air to make up for these losses. And that air is at rest, compared to your train that's going hundreds of miles an hour. In order to get the air into the fans you need to speed it up from still to the speed of the train. That means you're dumping energy into the air - which we call drag.
The British version of this design (actually the original) required 3,750 hp to move forward against "classic" air resistance. It required 2,200 to speed up the lift air. This made it much less economical than the competing maglev design, which required only 55 hp to power the lift system.
And to equal the passenger-carrying capability of a maglev train, which can be similar to that of a traditional train, there would have to be dozens of hovercraft, running very often, disrupting the sound environment conceivably every few minutes.
Don't ask me, ask the people who's neighborhoods would sound like an airport.