The application of technology to passenger transport has advanced a lot in a short time, but it seems that these advances are going to become obsolete with those that are approaching and that have already begun to show, although, for the moment, they are only They deal with projects to be developed.
High-speed trains, capable of reaching a speed of 350 kilometers/hour or exceeding the barrier of 400 and 500 kilometers, electric or gas vehicles, and even those that do not require a driver; aircraft with less weight and greater efficiency and fuel economy, or that can fly without a pilot inside; remote-controlled boats… They may soon become a relic of the past, just like stagecoaches, steam trains, sailing ships, or gas-powered cars were in their time.
The surprises that technology brings are enormous, and who knows if very soon advances will bring us closer to those transports that can be seen in science fiction movies, in the famous Star Wars or Star Trek.
1. Hyperloop, from Madrid to Barcelona in 35 minutes
In 2013, the project of a new type of train capable of reaching a speed of more than 1,000 kilometers per hour, circulating through a vacuum tube, was presented in California. The Hyperloop is an idea of the inventor Elon Musk, who highlights that it is a transport immune to weather, safe, since it will never crash, and with a speed higher than the Japanese bullet train or the average of an airplane.
It consists of a tube containing air at low pressure through which capsules circulate on a cushion of air from the nose to the tail of the capsule. The compressor provides levitation and, to a lesser degree, propulsion. The set can have two different types of capsules, some with capacity for 28 passengers and others capable of carrying three vehicles, at a speed that can reach 1,200 kilometers per hour. You can make the journey between Madrid and Barcelona, for example, in 35 minutes, the same as between San Francisco and Los Angeles in California, where Musk wants his first Hyperloop to be built and operational by the end of 2018.
Defined as cheap and efficient transport, its construction is no longer so cheap, since it involves an investment of more than 7,000 million euros for a line of more than 550 kilometers.
2. Clip-Air, a plane train or a train through the sky
The Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland), a project that consists of the development of a type of aircraft that will function as a modular aircraft for passengers and cargo. For this, there are three capsules that can be coupled under an aircraft or installed on railway wagons, allowing a flexible transition from one form of transport to another. A step towards much-needed interoperability.
The objective is none other than to provide air transport with the flexibility of rail transport, in addition to improving the occupancy rate. Passengers would board a capsule at a railway or maritime station, and after arriving at an airport, they would take off without moving from their seats, as these modules were attached to a flying wing. The idea has been greeted with some interest, but with great skepticism.
3. Fight traffic jams in cities
The Chinese know better than others what traffic jam is in the city, not in vain there are several million citizens who live in the main cities of the country, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing… and for this reason they are preparing an ideal transport to fight them. It is the Transit Elevate Bus, a kind of tram that circulates over traffic jams, as if it were eating the vehicles it exceeds, capable of carrying more than 1,000 people inside.
In fact, it seems that it is not just a project, but that the city of Shanghai wants to start it up. It must be remembered that this city is a pioneer in modern transport, with the operation of a levitation train, the Maglev, which goes over 400 kilometers per hour and links the airport with the center of the population.
It is a gigantic bus that is mounted on rails, has a length of 21.9 meters, 4.8 meters wide and leaves at least 2.1 meters of free space on the ground, where it surpasses the vehicles. Its maximum speed is 60 kilometers per hour. Obviously it is a transport to be used on wide circulation roads, and presented in May 2016, it is expected to come into operation before the beginning of 2018.
4. Take advantage of solar energy
Car manufacturers are looking for solutions to escape from gasoline, and for this hybrid vehicles are coming onto the market, electric vehicles with electricity as the only driving force, gas propellants…, and now there is a new return to nut; A further step is taken with automobiles that will not need a pump or a plug, it is a vehicle that will take advantage of the force of the Sun for its movements.
The model, called Sion, responds to a Tesla project with Solarcity, which mounts solar panels on the vehicle’s structure. The model will have several types of recharging form; one of them will be through photovoltaic panels integrated into the car, which consist of monocrystalline silicon cells, capable of generating up to 30 km. extra autonomy. The objective is to put this new type on the market in 2018, presenting a range of between 120 and 250 kilometers, depending on the model chosen, with a price that will range from 12,000 to just over 18,000 euros. .
5. The science fiction taxi: the Vahana
The vehicles that appear in science fiction novels and movies, and that are nothing more than ideas to read, or models to enjoy driving through incredible cities, or uniting the worlds that films like, for example, Star Wars want to present us with. or Star Trek, it seems that in a short space of time they are going to have a palpable reality in some city of the 21st century.
The European aeronautical manufacturer Airbus has designed, within its Future of urban mobility program, which is presented as one of the alternatives to solve the problems caused by traffic jams in cities at certain times. It is an autonomous flying vehicle, which can be used for both passengers and cargo.
This is the challenge that Airbus must solve: to make autonomous driving perfectly established and thus avoid possible accidents in the sky. The system would operate as if it were a heliport, located in the most sensitive areas of the city. The first prototype is expected to be presented in mid-2017.
6. Hamn, the driverless minibus
The Hamn is an autonomous minibus with capacity for 12 people and a range of about 200 kilometers, created by the Russian Internet company Yandex, in collaboration with the Kamaz truck manufacturer, also Russian, the German manufacturer Daimler and the Russian center of Nami research.
This project expects to have the first test vehicles throughout 2017 in different circulation scenarios. Artificial intelligence technology is used in them, which has artificial vision, voice recognition… But this is not the only electric vehicle with these characteristics, that is, without being driven by a physical driver inside, since that there is a wide range of companies that are experimenting with the same idea, such as the Chinese search engine Baidu, or the case of the Olli minibus, printed with a 3D printer, and that can also carry twelve people, and that It moves at a speed of less than 12 kilometers per hour. But these two examples are only the tip of the iceberg of what is under way in this field.
7. NASA and its supersonic plane
The memory of the Concord always remains in the history of aviation, of that plane that crossed the Atlantic in just over half the time it took other types of long-range aircraft, and that disappeared in 2003, and now again they begin to think of a supersonic model, and this time it is not just any manufacturer, but none other than NASA.
(Low Boom Fligth Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport), which is included in the program of this US space agency, Supersonic Jet. The new aircraft has been ordered from the US company Lockheed Martin, who has been awarded the contract for more of 20 million dollars.
The plane must be faster than sound, 340 kilometers per second, be silent and efficient, with a lower emission of CO2 into the atmosphere. Everything seems to indicate that a new Concord is underway.
8. Is the blimp coming back?
No one can forget when, at the beginning of the 20th century, airships moved across the sky of Europe and the United States, those large helical-shaped balloons filled with gas that, having less density than air, allowed them to move through the sky. Who has not heard about how romantic his flights were, or about the war work of the Zeppelins, or about the Hindenburg and its accident.
Well, at this time they want to launch a mixture of airplane and airship on the world market, which is considered the largest flying vehicle in the world, which has the capacity of not needing to refuel in five days of flight. It has a carbon fiber structure, and its balloon is filled with inert helium gas. It is designed to fly at an altitude of 4,800 meters and at 150 kilometers per hour, thanks to being powered by four 4-liter V8 diesel engines.
It has the ability to land on any reasonably flat surface and take off almost vertically, making it as flexible as a helicopter. It is 92 meters long, can carry about 48 passengers and more than ten tons of cargo.
9. Fly thanks to the Sun
More use of solar energy, which seems to be in fashion, given that it is necessary to find an alternative form of propulsion to petroleum derivatives. In this case it is a plane, , which has to its credit having circled the world propelled by the light of the Star King, and only with it.
It has been 21 days of flight during which he has traveled 42,000 kilometres, touring Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the United States, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Solar Impulse is an aircraft designed to minimize energy consumption, using lightweight materials to reduce its weight. Its wingspan is 64.3 meters and a wing area of 204 square meters.
It measures 21.85 meters in length and 6.4 meters in height, weighing 1,600 kilos. It is equipped with four small electric motors of 7.5 kW each, which move a propeller, each one, with 400 revolutions per minute. The motors are powered by photovoltaic-type cells that store excess energy in high-performance batteries. It develops a speed of about 70 km per hour and its energy storage capacity allows it to fly at night.
There is much more
Possibilities of moving trams in the city using batteries are also being studied…
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