Company claims its maglev travel system could be faster than jets

Company claims its maglev travel system could be faster than jets

Patent filed back in 1999, ET3 has been at work on breakthrough technology for some time

BY JEFFREY BAUSCH

Around the world in 80 days? Try six hours. That’s the claim made by Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies (ET3), which filed a patent for its technology back in 1999, but still need more investors to turn its idea into reality.

The ET3 method of transportation could get travelers from point A to point B significantly faster.

Really though, is there any potential to a technology that could transport passengers from New York to L.A. in 45 minutes, and Washington DC to Beijing in two hours? Believe it or not, yes.

The big idea

The concept is kind of nifty — you know those vacuum tubes at supermarket registers and ATM drive-throughs? They’re the ones that suck up deposit canisters at a ridiculously high rate of speed. Well, the idea behind ET3 is to use car-sized passenger magnetic levitation (maglev) capsules as an offshoot of this technology concept.

Each ET3 capsule would be no bigger than a standard automobile.

No air gets into the travel tubes for these superconducting maglev pods, so passengers would enter the capsules via air-locked stations set up along the train route.

The ET3 capsule stations would be similar to today’s train stations.

Once all the passengers are in, linear electric motors accelerate the capsules into a 5-foot-diameter tube that runs on a frictionless maglev system up to the pod’s pre-assigned velocity.

Once the appropriate speed has been reached, the capsule can travel through the vacuum tubes for the remainder of the trip without using any additional power and without experiencing any form of resistance.

The ET3 capsule is designed to keep passengers comfortable during their travels.

The ET3 group sees three basic embodiments of their technology, ranging from low-tech systems for local use at speeds of 200 mph; higher-tech systems for inner-state travel at speeds up to 400 mph; and highest-tech systems for intercontinental travel, with speeds up to 4,000 mph.

Proponents of the ET3 system claim that this technology would yield three major benefits: travel is silent; it’s cheaper than cars, trains, and planes; and, perhaps most obviously, ET3 has the potential to be faster than any other form of travel out there, whether it’s a standard minivan, or top-of-the-line fighter jet.

A deeper look into the technology, manufacturing

Since the motors are built into the evacuated tubes, the capsules don’t need any moving or electrically activated parts. The aforementioned superconductors are used to allow the capsule to, essentially, float in the tube while eddy currents induced within the conducting materials drive the pod forward.

Obviously, there’s much greater efficiency traveling this way. It’s also pretty resourceful — any electric energy needed to accelerate the capsule could be recaptured as the pod begins to slow down when reaching its destination.

Each capsule would weigh just 400 lbs. Like an automobile, it would carry up to six people or 800 lbs. of cargo. Automated passive switching could be made available, so there is potential for a pair of two-way ET3 tubes to actually exceed the capacity of a 32-lane freeway.

An artist’s rendering of a two-way ET3 transportation system.

According to ET3, since the capsules are so light, they need just 1/20 the material to be built compared to high-speed trains. As far as investment, ET3 can technically be built for a tenth the cost of high-speed rails, and about a quarter the cost of a freeway.

What’s next?

ET3 is open, so licensees of the technology become owners.

Since filing the patent, the group has sold over 60 licenses in five countries. Members of the ET3 group have worked with parties in China where over a dozen licenses have already been sold.

The problem that the group is running into, however, is that licenses are being sold through the ET3 website starting at $100, so a lot more people are needed in order to really get this project going.

The company is currently developing a 3D virtual ride for the ET3 system. Unfortunately, the prelaunch for the ride that was scheduled for last year never actually came into fruition.

To learn more about this very unique idea, visit the ET3 website. ■