Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
re air bearing - what would it take to incorporate some addition such as a maglev effect?
cheaper than on a train?
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Maglev requires 2 things, lots of electricity, and magnets run along the entire length of the tube. Why add a system that is (a) expensive, (b) hot and (c) heavy?
The idea behind this is that there is no propulsion along 95% of the track, so the infrastructure is very simple. Similar to why long distance trains don't derive power from the tracks, keep the "road" a dumb system and make the "vehicle" smart, rather than the other way around (as seen in something like a subway).
Also, Maglev requires a very precise path, while the air bearing allows the pod to float along the inner skin of the tube, like a luge (it would work it's way up the side during turns). Maglev can't do that. The air bearing will work at a range of speeds, which will give it a range of actual paths along the tube wall.
If we had cheap room temperature superconductors, this would all be an intellectual dalliance since we would have maglev systems crisscrossing the nation, but we don't have that.