Reply To: Wealth of Nations, and Economics of Abundance

[Jolly Roger]

Glenn Millam wrote: I see FF as being a good technology for MagLev trains, but not airplanes. … you still have a lot of x-rays to shield for, so this makes carrying onboard reactors weight-prohibitive for aircraft.

Perhaps the FF reactors could be placed near the wingtips to minimize the amount of shielding required.

jets are one of the main contributors to global dimming.

Because of unburned hydrocarbon fuel in the exhaust. No fuel, no exhaust.

airplanes have to be light, so they will probably always need a conventional chemical-based fuel.

A fully-fueled airliner is pretty heavy, too.

But what if you could zoom from Baltimore to New York at 600+ kph … ? It’s only possible with maglev.

Maglev is not the only way to levitate a train. Wing-In-Ground-Effect (WIG) can also be used. It would use only 1/3 the energy to raise the train off the tracks, so more energy could be used to make the train go faster.

Common WIG train designs have horizontal wings, but one that is no longer on the Web had angled-down wings gliding over a triangular-cross-section track. It was to be powered by linear induction motors at the wingtips.

Whether Maglev or WIG, bullet trains would need new track, and in some cases, new right-of-ways. In the near-term, I foresee diesel locomotives being replaced with Focus Fusion.