South Korea is seeking to develop a train-like public transport concept that is almost as fast as the speed of sound up 1,000 km / h, the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) said Tuesday.
The state-run institute will join forces with other research groups and Hanyang University to build the near-supersonic “train”, which would be able to travel from Seoul to Busan in half an hour.
“We hope to create an ultra-fast train, which will travel inside a state-of-the-art low-pressure tube at lightning speeds, in the not-too-distant future,” said a KRRI official.
“To that end, we will cope with associated institutes as well as Hanyang University to check the viability of various related technologies called the hyper-tube format over the next three years.”
Currently, the fastest ground transport in the world is magnetic levitation (maglev) trains, which can travel at around 500km / h.
China has looked at low pressure tube high speed trains. Vacuum tube trains can theoretically travel at deep hypersonic speeds. The lower the pressure in the tube then the less resistance there is. Thus higher speeds can be achieved.
Elon Musk’s hyperloop uses a fan to move regular pressure air in a tube around the capsule. Not low pressure and not vacuumtube
SOURCES – SCMP, ET3
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