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Old 03-01-2012, 02:58 PM   #25 (permalink)
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I think if you wanted practical land transportation a better solution would be to use a windmill to pull a slight vacuum in a tube and let the vehicles enter the tube from the other end. I think Giffard had some research into that in the 1800s. Originally I think they even conceived subways to work that way.

If the vehicle fit in the tube with very close tolerances, then just 1 PSI of negative pressure would put considerable force on a 3 or 4 foot diameter capsule. 144 pounds of pressure per square foot of the surface area on the rear of the capsule. You could have many capsules in the same tube at the same time, and the air between the capsules would make them almost incapable of running into each other.

At the end of the tube, the air would be pulled into an opening at the top of the tube, so when the capsule passed the low pressure point it would just exit the tube onto a flat surface landing area.

Similar to the heating units in some buildings that maintain higher temperatures even with the doors open most of the time, but you would need to have some form of flapper valve to keep the vacuum coming in one direction. Should be totally doable, with mega high efficiency with the capsules not needing any internal power source.

You could have the capsules electrically powered to get them to the entrance point to the tube itself.

regards
Mech
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