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I stumbled across the Aeromovel on Wikipedia ("Hyperloop" > "Atmospheric railway" to "Atmospheric railway - Aeromovel" [1]). I was looking for a diagram to exp
by curtis 10y ago
I stumbled across the Aeromovel on Wikipedia ("Hyperloop" > "Atmospheric railway" to "Atmospheric railway - Aeromovel" [1]). I was looking for a diagram to explain exactly how it worked, but couldn't really find one. However this video actually does a really good job of explaining it, all the way down to the guy crawling around in the air duct.
The Aeromovel is about as low-tech as the Hyperloop is high tech. Of course it addresses a different part of the transit problem space, but it looks like it actually works, and it's easy to see why it's really cheap.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway#Aeromovel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway#Aeromovel
- Animats 10y agoThat's a neat little system. The atmospheric railways of the 19th century failed because they lacked a good sealing material for the slot. They tried to use leather, which didn't last very long. With synthetic rubber, it can work, although I wonder how often they have to replace the gaskets. The size of the air duct is much larger than the 19th century systems, and the pressure is quite low, only 0.16 atmosphere. There is a switch for this system, and it's not too big.[1] (Monorail switches tend to be bulky.) Another system (4.7km) is under construction, or at least contracted for, in Canoas, Brazil. This is planned to be expanded into a sizable metro system. Aeromovel probably would have been an improvement over that cable-hauled kludge at the Oakland airport. That cost $484 million for a 3.2 mile system with two cars. Only two cars; there cannot be more, because of the way the cable system works. [1] http://www.eureka.tu.chiba-u.ac.jp/download/jseht/Aeromovel%20JAPAN.pdf http://www.eureka.tu.chiba-u.ac.jp/download/jseht/Aeromovel%...