MORE MAGLEV :

The Need for Speed : With the race for high-speed train transportation heating up, magnets are looking very attractive (CHARLES P. WALLACE/LATHEN, May 20, 2002, TIME)

The idea of using magnetic levitation to run a high-speed railroad has been around since 1934, when a German scientist named Hermann Kemper received a patent on the technology. Such trains would be extremely fast and float quietly over the tracks supported by magnetic attraction instead of steel wheels. Although a brilliant idea, the problem has been that it is simply too expensive to implement over a long distance. Now a project in China and advanced proposals for two more trains in Germany have moved maglev from science fiction to commercial reality.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 30, 2002 7:02 AM