3 ms·

I was wondering the same. For whatever reason, the first thing I thought of when I read that was something like those proposed vacuum tube train things (eg. htt

I was wondering the same. For whatever reason, the first thing I thought of when I read that was something like those proposed vacuum tube train things (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vactrain).

marvin 14y ago
Would it be possible to have a tunnel like that and somehow fill it with air instead, then accelerate the air to something like 2x the speed of sound outside? That was my first association when he said "there are other ways to store energy than batteries". Then you arrange the whole thing in a loop. You could have some sort of carriage that just gets carried along by the airflow. Anyway - the part about electric VTOL aircraft got me really excited. I've been annoyed that no one has tried to do VTOL aircraft with fans yet. If it could be made electric too (I'm assuming on-board generators or fuel cells here), that would turn a lot of things on its head.
- xd 14y ago
  I was thinking along these lines .. but instead of moving the air, remove it from one side of the train, and then allow atmospheric pressure to force it through the tunnel.
- __alexs 14y ago
  > I've been annoyed that no one has tried to do VTOL aircraft with fans yet The F-35B uses a fan and vectored thrust. It's not quite VTOL though. (Also all helicopters.)
- dojomouse 14y ago
  Possible, but not efficient. The drag of the air against the interior of the tube will be really high. Much better is to suck all the air out, and use another drive system (maglev with linear motors).
srs0001 14y ago
That was my first thought as well.