"Vacuum Tube Train: A 4,000-mph magnetically levitated train could
allow you to have lunch in Manhattan and still get to London in time
for the theater, despite the 5-hour time difference. It’s not
impossible: Norway has studied neutrally buoyant tunnels (concluding
that they’re feasible, though expensive), and Shanghai is running maglev
trains to its airport. But supersonic speeds require another critical
step: eliminating the air—and therefore air friction—from the train’s
path
. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects
of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel
apart." "As envisioned by Frankel and Frank Davidson, a former MIT
researcher and early member of the first formal English Channel Tunnel
study group, sections of neutrally buoyant tunnel submerged 150 to 300
feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic, then anchored to the
seafloor–thereby avoiding the high pressures of the deep ocean. Then air
would be pumped out, creating a vacuum, and alternating magnetic pulses
would propel a magnetically levitated train capable of speeds up to
4,000 mph across the pond in an hour. As Frankel and Davidson say, it's
doable. "We lay pipes and cables across the ocean every day," says
Frankel. "The Norwegians recently investigated submerged, floating
tunnels for crossing their deep fjords, and were only held back by the
costs."-Carl Hoffman
. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects
of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel
apart." "As envisioned by Frankel and Frank Davidson, a former MIT
researcher and early member of the first formal English Channel Tunnel
study group, sections of neutrally buoyant tunnel submerged 150 to 300
feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic, then anchored to the
seafloor–thereby avoiding the high pressures of the deep ocean. Then air
would be pumped out, creating a vacuum, and alternating magnetic pulses
would propel a magnetically levitated train capable of speeds up to
4,000 mph across the pond in an hour. As Frankel and Davidson say, it's
doable. "We lay pipes and cables across the ocean every day," says
Frankel. "The Norwegians recently investigated submerged, floating
tunnels for crossing their deep fjords, and were only held back by the
costs."-Carl Hoffman
SOURCE POPSCI.COM
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