Is China firm’s plan to develop 4,000 km/h train just a pipe dream?
Company says its concept would combine supersonic aircraft and high-speed rail technologies, but experts have cast huge doubts on the scheme
A Chinese aerospace firm’s claim that it is developing a “flying train” capable of travelling at up to 4,000 km/h has met with scepticism and wry humour from transport experts and members of the public in China.
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation announced plans on Wednesday to research a futuristic train network that would first run at 1,000km per hour between cities, eventually developing to reach top speeds of 4,000km/h.That target is well over 10 times faster than the maximum speed of existing bullet trains.The idea was unveiled by Liu Shiquan, the corporation’s deputy chief executive, at an industry conference in Wuhan in Hubei province on Wednesday, the official Science and Technology Daily reported.The company did not give a timeline for its ambitious plans.Liu said the company wanted to work with over 20 Chinese and international scientific research groups on the project, according to the report....MORE
...Some pointed out that it took China six years to increase the top speed of its bullet trains from 300km/h to 350km/h and that no braking system in the world would be able to bring the “flying train” to an emergency stop from its maximum speed and keep passengers alive....
Yes, stopping is important.
HT to Next Big Future who notes the company does have some resources:
...CASIC owns seven academies, two scientific research and development bases, six public listed companies, and over 620 other companies and institutes scattered nationwide, with more than 135,000 employees. In 2012 (fiscal year), the total assets of CASIC is CNY 159.6 billion ¥, sales is CNY 134 billion ¥, and profit is CNY8.92 billion ¥. CASIC thus has about US$20 billion in sales and US$1.5 billion in profit.
