>technology isn't there yet In what sense? >lowered maintenance costs Not really, actually - hydrodynamic bearings already work on the "zero wear due to zero

>technology isn't there yet In what sense? >lowered maintenance costs Not really, actually - hydrodynamic bearings already work on the "zero wear due to zero surface contact" principle. The reason this is using magnetic bearings is just because it needs super-super low friction, under super-tiny loads, in order to work. >Probably a lot less noise Bearings aren't generally noisy. If they were, they wouldn't be very good bearings!