TECHNOLOGY: ALL ABOARD THE MAGLEV, THE LEVITATING, HYPERFAST TRAIN OF THE FUTURE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00792R000700470001-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 28, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/11 CIA-RDP96-00792R000700470001-9
TECHNOLOGY: All aboard the magiev, 58
the levitating, hyperfast train of the future
The race is on to build a new breed of trains. With the aid of
electromagnets, they will whiz along at speeds of around
00 m.p.h. When they arrive, perhaps in the 1990s-they cpj lid`
revolutionize-travel and relieve the pressure on the jammed an
increasingly unfriendly skies. The question is who will dominate
the market--the West Germans or the Japanese?
Approved For Release 2000/08/11: CIA-RDP96-00792R000700470001-9
 Floating Trains: What a Way to Go!
Cates off the guideway. As the electromag-
net moves faster and faster over the coils,
the magnetic force becomes more power-
ful, raising the car to its cruising height of
414 in. Until the train is moving fast
enough to liftoff, it rolls on wheels that re-
tract as soon as the maglev hits 106 m.p.h.
The method of propulsion is basically
similar in the two systems. In both cases
the train effectively rides on an electro-
magnetic wave. Alternating the current in
a set of magnets in the guideway changes
their polarity and thus the way they inter-
act with the magnets on the train. As a re-
sult, the train is alternately pushed and
pulled along. Raising the frequency of the
current speeds up the movement. Says
Kenji Fujie, chief engineer of JR's maglev
laboratory: "We can run it beyond 1,000
k.p.h. 1620 m.p.h.1, theoretically."
Theoretically, yes. Right now, howev-
er, the Japanese decision to rely on super-
conductors has put them well behind the
Germans in development. Reason: com-
mercially feasible superconductors can
now be used only at extremely low tem-
peratures. The Japanese magnets must be
chilled to -452' F before they achieve
perfect conductivity. Turning the thermo-
stat that low requires costly liquid helium
and heavy compressors aboard the train
to reliquefy the evaporating helium. The
Japanese. who have poured $379 million
of private and government funds into the
maglev, have reached a speed of 323
m.p.h, on a 4.4-mile straight track at Mi-
yazaki on the southern island of Kyushu.
But the track has none of the loops and
she curves found along real railways. It
feRDR96 7e921 OO
the Japanese develop a model that is both
A-RDP96-0
Japan and West Germany are in a race with rival high-speed maglevs
Viewed head on and from a distance,
the train of the future looks like an
overgrown bobsled on stilts. As it
approaches on its track, 23 ft. above the
ground, it fails almost all the tests of rec-
ognition: there are no engines, no wheels,
no rails. Most astonishing of all, there is
no clatter, no rumble, no screech. As the
train hurtles by, there is only a vast
whoosh. the sound of air being parted by a
vehicle traveling at close to 300 m.p.h.
The new train is called a maglev, a
contraction of magnetic levitation. The
vehicle lacks that litany of trainlike prop-
erties because it floats in the air, support-
ed by the force of immensely powerful
magnets. Instead of rolling on rails, it ac-
tually flies, using magnets for propulsion.
Unhindered by any friction except wind
resistance, the maglev can attain speeds
unheard of in ordinary land travel-the
fastest conventional train, France's TGv
(train a grande vitesse) hits only 186
m.p.h. One maglev is already running: a
short, slow-moving (25 m.p.h.) line in
Britain that shuttles people from Bir-
mingham's airport to the railway station.
But much faster prototypes are being test-
ed, and ambitious projects could get under
If maglev trains do indeed get off the
tracks by the 1990s//as their builders claim,
they will be bound for imminent glory. Sel-
dom has a new leap in technology been as
sorely needed. Major air-travel arteries in
Europe, the U.S. and Japan are clogging up
so badly so fast tkat the clean, fast and effi-
cient maglev could prove to be their salva-
tion. Not surprisingly, the race to get the
maglev to the market has turned into a
sprint. Equally unsurprising are the contes-
tants: West Germany and Japan.
There is more than just sporting inter-
est in the rivalry. Although both countries
are working on maglevs, their designs are
so fundamentally different that victory for
one or the other could have profound im-
plications for a whole area of technologi-
cal development. Japan Railways Group
(JR), the leader in the Japanese develop-
ment, uses a design that relies on magnets
made with superconductors, the extraor-
dinary materials that carry electrical cur-
rents without resistance. The West Ger-
man model, known as the Transrapid and
built by a consortium that includes Thys-
sen Henschel, Messerschmitt- Bolkow-
Blohm and Krauss Maffei, usAD[gnr
ventional electromagnets. The 1st
can get their design into marketable
shape soon, they could build a lead in the
vital field of superconductors and estab-
lish a strong grip on the future of high-
speed long-distance train travel.
Another major difference between the
two designs is the way the trains levitate.
As Manfred Wackers, chief systems ana-
lyst for Thyssen's team, puts it, "Our sys-
tem is attractive. Theirs is repulsive."
Meaning: the two systems use opposite
ends of the magnet to lift off. In the West
German model, winglike flaps extend be-
neath the train and fold under a T-shaped
guideway. Electromagnets in the guide-
way are activated by a distant control sta-
tion, their polarity opposite that of elec-
tromagnets in the wings. Because of the
attraction between the poles, the magnets
in the guideway pull on the magnets in the
wings, lifting the train % in.
The Japanese maglev sits in a low,
troughlike guideway, paved with two rows
of metal boxes containing aluminum
coils. Built into the car's undercarriage
are six superconducting electromagnets.
When one of them passes over an unma -
%todFOrcRe> aeaMIR08111
nying magnetic field-is induced in th,
Guidance
magnet
jie: "We firmly believe that our system is
the most promising one for the next cen-
tury and beyond."
That confidence will have to be serene
to carry the Japanese through what looks
to be years of headlines and television
coverage for the West Germans. Their
Transrapid program, which has con-
sumed more than $830 million of public
funds, is readying its final prototype, the
TR-07, for tests on a 20-mile track with
loops at both ends at Lathen, near the
Dutch border. A previous model, the
TR-06, has already run the straightaway
at 256 m.p.h.; the TR-07 is designed to
reach 300 m.p.h. Most impressive of all,
though, is the Transrapid consortium's
push to break ground on two major proj-
ects, the Los Angeles-Las Vegas link and
a 95-mile Hamburg-Hannover line.
The more certain project for the mo-
ment is the Hamburg-Hannover
line, which the West German gov-
ernment committed itself to building last
June, with operation scheduled for the
mid-1990s. The track is planned as the
first segment of a 600-mile Kiel-Munich
line, but not all systems are go yet. Some
politicians and many citizens remain un-
convinced that the $1.8 billion needed for
the first segment will be money well
spent, especially with $1.35 billion
already allocated for a high-speed con-
ventional-railway project called the Inter-
City Experimental. Transrapid support-
ers, however, do not think the choice
between conventional trains and maglevs
should be an either-or one. Says one mag-
001M00CH 9 Riesenhuber, Minis-
ter o Research and Technology: "Sailing
Guide
wheel
ropulsion
wheel magnet
completely overtook sailing ships. That is
how it will be with the Transrapid."
A decision on the Los Angeles-Las
Vegas line is due in 1989, when a 16-mem-
ber commission will announce whether
Transrapid or a conventional rail builder
will receive the contract for the fast track
to the gaming tables. No American com-
pany is expected to submit a maglev plan.
Although the U.S. had a maglev project
under way until 1975. federal austerity
measures turned off the electromagnets.
At least one politician, Democratic Sena-
tor Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New
York, wants funding for research re-
sumed, but congressional action is not ex-
pected before next year.
Despite the absence of a homegrown
maglev, enthusiasm in the U.S. is running
high for the Transrapid, which would cut
travel time between Los Angeles and Las
Vegas from five hours by car to 70 min-
utes by train. Ironically, the Japanese
trading company C. Itch & Co. has
pledged to help arrange the $2.5 billion in
financing that the West Germans would
need to build the California-to-Nevada
link. Reason: C. Itoh is Transrapid's
agent in Japan and is pondering the possi-
bility of building that system at home.
Even if Transrapid is not awarded the
casino-express contract, maglev technol-
ogy is already on its way to the U.S. Mag-
netic Transit of America, a subsidiary of
West Germany's Daimler-Benz. broke
ground in downtown Las Vegas last Janu-
ary for a slower-speed-50 m.p.h -mag-
lev urban-transit system. Completion of
the initial 1.3-mile segment of the Las Ve-
gas People Mover is planned for 1991-
perhaps a good year for dating the begin-