4 ms·

He also recently said it's "a cross between a Concorde and a rail gun". That would at least enforce the maglev principle Jacques envisioned. It wouldn't be quit

by Maakuth 14y ago

He also recently said it's "a cross between a Concorde and a rail gun". That would at least enforce the maglev principle Jacques envisioned. It wouldn't be quite a Concorde in the pressurized tube though. But it's not impossibly far away from that concept, maybe Musk deliberately described it in a bit mysterious fashion. Time will tell.

coenhyde 14y ago
Maybe "Concorde" was just his way of saying it's fast and it transports people.
mseebach2 14y ago
"Rail gun" could illustrate the way carriages are added to and remove from the loop.
- lutusp 14y ago
  In the technical literature, the term "rail gun/railgun" is strongly associated with electromagnetic propulsion methods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun
  - mseebach2 14y ago
    Ah, I was thinking of a Gatling gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_cannon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_cannon), not a rail gun. The concept of rotary tubes seemed to mesh with OP's vision.
- manmal 14y ago
  Or a continuous maglev force (as the OP wrote) for the entire track, augmented with air pressure to store acceleration energy in the system for the other trains.
easytiger 14y ago
> it leaves when you arrive Its just maglev trains with some novel enclosed design with carriage dissociation? A bit like this chinese train concept that has drop off/pick up of carriages:* *http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOh5W_-_WFvc&ei=HqOsUKvVDY-N0wWBwIHgBQ&usg=AFQjCNGf6Q1M3GPYfRcjfdJ_4akLaHyulQ&sig2=-aik_mpaj0IlD9nBjTmuEw http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s...
dandelany 14y ago
How much air pressure and track length would you need to accelerate a craft like this to supersonic speeds? ponders. Come to think of it, would that even be physically possible? My understanding of the "sonic boom" phenomenon is that it involves the craft breaking through a zone of high air pressure that has accumulated in front of it... Surely this wouldn't be possible if the pressure itself were propelling the craft. My (uninformed) guess would be that supersonic speeds are attainable with this kind of system, but probably unfeasible, and crafts probably wouldn't experience the sonic boom phenomenon.
qxcv 14y ago
He also said that there aren't any rails and it runs on the ground. At the moment, we have a Concorde without wings[0] (a lifting body Concorde, perhaps?) crossed with a railgun without rails. Sounds like vaporware. [0]: It could still have wings but operate under ground effect, though it seems that it would be difficult to keep your leading edge intact travelling just above a hard surface "twice as fast as an airliner". "Twice as fast as an airliner" is Mach 0.85 * 2 = Mach 1.7 at FL360, which translates into Mach 1.5 at sea level. One useful thing we learn from this is that this system will basically have to be propelled by compressed air or electromagnetic force, since props don't work over Mach 1 and we don't have electric turbines.
- lnanek2 14y ago
  Hmm, well I guess roads are cheaper than rails (i.e. rails along the entire route of the trip, not speed up rails like in a rail gun). And powering something from fixed locations (guns) is cheaper than bringing your engine with you. So maybe it is like a train, one person per, but it runs on cheap road like track, and it's propulsion is provided by fixed stations. If each track was a straight run from station to station you could just ditch the wheels and whatnot and fire the thing between stations along the ground. There's no way it could move so fast and still use car roads, unfortunately, so it will still have problems buying track space or building tunnels or building elevated paths. Too bad it runs on the ground.
  - eru 14y ago
    > Hmm, well I guess roads are cheaper than rails [...] We could look that up. But considering that roads and rails the world over are often build by governments or government owned corporations, I expect Elon Musk to have found a much cheaper way to build his infrastructure.

by Maakuth 14y ago

coenhyde 14y ago

Maybe "Concorde" was just his way of saying it's fast and it transports people.

mseebach2 14y ago

"Rail gun" could illustrate the way carriages are added to and remove from the loop.

lutusp 14y ago
In the technical literature, the term "rail gun/railgun" is strongly associated with electromagnetic propulsion methods: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun
- mseebach2 14y ago
  Ah, I was thinking of a Gatling gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_cannon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_cannon), not a rail gun. The concept of rotary tubes seemed to mesh with OP's vision.
manmal 14y ago
Or a continuous maglev force (as the OP wrote) for the entire track, augmented with air pressure to store acceleration energy in the system for the other trains.

easytiger 14y ago

> it leaves when you arrive Its just maglev trains with some novel enclosed design with carriage dissociation? A bit like this chinese train concept that has drop off/pick up of carriages:* *http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOh5W_-_WFvc&ei=HqOsUKvVDY-N0wWBwIHgBQ&usg=AFQjCNGf6Q1M3GPYfRcjfdJ_4akLaHyulQ&sig2=-aik_mpaj0IlD9nBjTmuEw http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s...

dandelany 14y ago

How much air pressure and track length would you need to accelerate a craft like this to supersonic speeds? ponders. Come to think of it, would that even be physically possible? My understanding of the "sonic boom" phenomenon is that it involves the craft breaking through a zone of high air pressure that has accumulated in front of it... Surely this wouldn't be possible if the pressure itself were propelling the craft. My (uninformed) guess would be that supersonic speeds are attainable with this kind of system, but probably unfeasible, and crafts probably wouldn't experience the sonic boom phenomenon.

qxcv 14y ago

He also said that there aren't any rails and it runs on the ground. At the moment, we have a Concorde without wings[0] (a lifting body Concorde, perhaps?) crossed with a railgun without rails. Sounds like vaporware. [0]: It could still have wings but operate under ground effect, though it seems that it would be difficult to keep your leading edge intact travelling just above a hard surface "twice as fast as an airliner". "Twice as fast as an airliner" is Mach 0.85 * 2 = Mach 1.7 at FL360, which translates into Mach 1.5 at sea level. One useful thing we learn from this is that this system will basically have to be propelled by compressed air or electromagnetic force, since props don't work over Mach 1 and we don't have electric turbines.

lnanek2 14y ago
Hmm, well I guess roads are cheaper than rails (i.e. rails along the entire route of the trip, not speed up rails like in a rail gun). And powering something from fixed locations (guns) is cheaper than bringing your engine with you. So maybe it is like a train, one person per, but it runs on cheap road like track, and it's propulsion is provided by fixed stations. If each track was a straight run from station to station you could just ditch the wheels and whatnot and fire the thing between stations along the ground. There's no way it could move so fast and still use car roads, unfortunately, so it will still have problems buying track space or building tunnels or building elevated paths. Too bad it runs on the ground.
- eru 14y ago
  > Hmm, well I guess roads are cheaper than rails [...] We could look that up. But considering that roads and rails the world over are often build by governments or government owned corporations, I expect Elon Musk to have found a much cheaper way to build his infrastructure.