Posted on 04/20/2012 7:42:53 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
Real-life Futurama tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing in 2 hours
The Simpsons have the monorail. Futurama has the Tube Transport System. The difference is that tube-transport is a fantasy — at least for now.
The folks at ET3 want to make what they call "Evacuated Tube Transport" a reality. Their proposed maglev system would be capable of propelling six-person-capacity cylinders to speeds of over 4000 miles per hour, making it possible for people to travel from New York to L.A. in just 45 minutes, or from New York to Beijing in two hours. What's more, ET3 claims the infrastructure could be built at one-tenth the cost of a high speed rail and would operate fifty times more efficiently than electric cars or trains.
These all sound like very, very bold claims to us — still, it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of a vacuum-sealed, maglev-powered, 4000-mile-per-hour transportation system (though the idea of a collision at those speeds, or the implications of a capsule-leak, are enough to make even the most enthusiastic transpo-futurist a little queasy).
"tube-transport will catapult you from New York to Beijing" ...
Why would I ever want to even be in either New York or Beijing?
((((Ping))))
Evacuated Tube Transport could take you around the world in just 6 hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=McpWcn-1RZU
You could never have this on the same planet as Islam. It would be too juicy a target.
How do you build a tube across the Pacific?
Yeah! I wanna be going 4-freakin’-thousand miles an hour, when something goes wrong!
Would you need to take the change out your pockets so you wouldn’t get stuck like the smaller one at bank drive-thrus.
It would be over in a flash.
A total pipe dream. I wonder if Obama will fund it?
Only if it's powered by algae.
Is that a bad pun?
“You could never have this on the same planet as Islam. It would be too juicy a target.”
I had seen this on the Discovery Channel for NY to London in 50 Min and it is entirely POSSIBLE but... practical????
Certainly unless the world smartens up and starts to educate everyone on the insanity that is Is-Slime, projects like this would just be targets in waiting for these 6th century sand monkeys and their pig prophet Mo-Ham-Mud.
Indeed, screw Beijing. That’s a marriage in hell for them, and I do not have to support that with my taxes. Good bye.
Another fantasy transport idea I think is cool is the tunnel through the center of the earth and it would require zero power.
The nature of gravity would accelerate you toward the center of the earth and as you passed it you would begin to slow down coming to a stop exactly at the surface on the far side of the planet. 42 minutes from anywhere on the globe.
Its never going to happen for obvious reasons but its still a cool idea.
http://www.damninteresting.com/the-gravity-express/
If it can be converted into an underground ICBM for Chinese terrorists, yep yep yep, the Chinese will build it and we will be the fools co financing it as a shovel ready job.
Ditch the tubes, keep the catapult and start loading up the liberals and marxists in this country for a one way trip.
Drill a hole straight through the Earth and you can get from New York to China (or just about anywhere on Earth) in 43 minutes. Of course, you might not survive the trip due to intense heat or magma on the tunnel, but you’ll make it there.
I wonder who is paying these guys salaries?
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