China's Maglev is Awesome

This thing is damn cool, it goes well over 400kmh.

It's only running from Shanghai to the airport, but it's now world's fastest train.

It's not making much money, but showcases possible future transport tech.

The US needs these - coast to coast.

Glad to see they are spending some money wisely.

Maglevs are sooooo cool....

I think maglevs will be very useful for long land trips, like between cities, for example. At 400km/h, you're going to get there pretty darned fast. I could see maglevs going between major cities, but I think they will be too expensive for much else.

The thing is, though, even with the price issue, people should be willing to pay roughly what they do now for airfare to take a maglev, since it should get you there in a similar amount of time.

On a technological note, I am wondering something. Everyone knows that high enough G-forces (acceleration) are harmful. To get to 400km/h, that means either the maglev is accelerating really fast, or else it takes a really long time to get up to that speed. I'm assuming they do the latter, giving another reason why these are practical primarily for long distances.

You mean Germany's maglev? China basically copied Germany's maglev down to every last nut and bolt.

Sandia National Lab is working on something like maglev. But it's cheaper and less complicated, and it's just as fast. Now Congress just needs to fully fund it.

[edit on 22-7-2005 by NWguy83]

I travelled on this from Shanghai airport to the city centre when visiting my brother (English teacher in the city) at Easter. And yes, I can confirm that it is awsome - you feel like you could be in some sci-fi film while on it.

It's actually quite hard to tell you are going that fast as it is really quiet and you are running on a thin strip quite far from buildings or the ground. You sit there alternately looking out of the window and at the speedo which is above every doorway, going "oooh" ever so often. Because the journey is short you only hit top speed (400 km/h) for about 5 seconds and then it has to start braking again for arrival in Shanghai.

It is a really impressive introduction to China, which I suppose is the whole idea. They are saying "you thought we were a bunch of rice farmers, now check this out!". By Chinese standards it's quite expensive to use but still loses loads of money on every trip, so it stops running in the early evening (on the way back the airport we had to get a traditional cab).

It isn't some Chinese copy of a German system - it is the German system, completely designed and built by a German company. I think they are in negotiation with them to set up a line between Shanghai and Bejing, but the cost is going to be astronomical. I for one will be going back to travel on it if is built though (well, I'm going back soon anyway, as Shanghai itself it pretty awsome.)

Originally posted by NWguy83
You mean Germany's maglev? China basically copied Germany's maglev down to every last nut and bolt.

Actually, despite your politically motivated claims that China ALWAYS steals Western technology, in this case Germany just SOLD it to them. The Germans were quite happy to sell that expensive white elephant. They also tried to sell it in the US, mainly for a connection between LA and Vegas, but couldn't sell it due to among others the enormous costs.

www.maglev.com...
www.maglev.com...

Only to/from the airport, you say? That would be a pity.

On the other hand, making $$$ is never the intent for the Communist government. Showing off and gain "face" is. Why? Because it will ultimately enhance their ruling power.

That's the key. Everything they do is to ensure that they will STAY IN POWER.

Come to think about it, it is rather pathetic . . .

Then why did Germany claim that China "plagiarized" it's Maglev?

Originally posted by NWguy83
Then why did Germany claim that China "plagiarized" it's Maglev?

Where did you get that one from?

.
If going from zero to sixty in 6 seconds is not excessive G force then it will only take 40 seconds to get to 400 mph.

I think the human body can handle several G's [as long as you don't have some kind of condition].

Blackout is at around 6 to 9 Gs i think.
Fighter Jets on a turn can crank about 8 Gs, which causes blackouts. They wear pressure suits to keep the blood going to their brains.
.

Originally posted by Simon666

Originally posted by NWguy83
Then why did Germany claim that China "plagiarized" it's Maglev?

Where did you get that one from?

Plagiarism report denied: Chinese engineers’ plagiarism report is groundless

CCTV
12-13-2004


A government spokeswoman has denied claims Chinese engineers plagiarized Germany's magnetic levitation technology, saying the report is "totally groundless".

Jiao Yang, spokeswoman of the Shanghai municipal government, said the Chinese engineers accused of plagiarism by the German weekly "Wirtschaftswoche" were merely carrying out "a routine maintenance" of the system.

"We've investigated the matter with the Shanghai maglev company, and been told that the entire maglev system was handed over to the Chinese side after it passed the company's acceptance test on April 13 of 2004," Jiao said.

"It's therefore up to the Chinese side to operate, maintain and manage the system," she pointed out.

Shanghai's maglev system, the world's first commercial maglev line, was put into official operation in September, 2003.

That is suspected copying of technology that was already provided by the Germans to the Chinese. It is not like you originally tried to make it appear as if the Chinese stole that technology from the Germans and used it to build a maglev with in Shangai.

I think such Maglev trains would be too dangerous because of terrorist threat. No more the terrorist need to get the bomb into the plane/train, they would just place it somewhere on the railway. And you cannot effectively guard 4000km railway...

Someone should develop high speed airship... Current ones can cruise at 180km. They are relatively cheap, enviromentaly friendly, safe, and much more flexible than trains.

[edit on 30-7-2005 by longbow]

Originally posted by Simon666
That is suspected copying of technology that was already provided by the Germans to the Chinese. It is not like you originally tried to make it appear as if the Chinese stole that technology from the Germans and used it to build a maglev with in Shangai.

Where in my original post did I say China stole anything? I said China copied it. The Germans gave them Maglev, then the Chinese copied it and called it their own.

Originally posted by NWguy83

Originally posted by Simon666
That is suspected copying of technology that was already provided by the Germans to the Chinese. It is not like you originally tried to make it appear as if the Chinese stole that technology from the Germans and used it to build a maglev with in Shangai.

Where in my original post did I say China stole anything? I said China copied it. The Germans gave them Maglev, then the Chinese copied it and called it their own.

It was built by a big German firm, with signs for the firm all over the construction site, and info about the firm still at the Maglev site. And the Chinese paid the German firm for it. So stealing isn't really an issue here whatsoever.

Originally posted by NWguy83

Where in my original post did I say China stole anything? I said China copied it. The Germans gave them Maglev, then the Chinese copied it and called it their own.

china never copied it. is there another maglev train anywhere else?

[edit on 7-8-2005 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by chinawhite

Originally posted by NWguy83

Where in my original post did I say China stole anything? I said China copied it. The Germans gave them Maglev, then the Chinese copied it and called it their own.

china never copied it. is there another maglev train anywhere else?

Yes, there are several. A german company designed the Chinese system.

Yes, there are several. A german company designed the Chinese system.

Japan and Germany both have Maglevs, though they aren't in actual service. And they've had them longer than China has. But China was in hurry to put their knock-off into service.


[edit on 7-8-2005 by NWguy83]

Arent the japanese also working on a train with magnetic levitation technology since the 1970's?

www.rtri.or.jp...

i though they were the creator of magnetic levitation, not ze germanz.