There is less than a month left until the presentation of the first industrial sample of the SkyWay high-speed unibus, capable of developing speed of 500 km/h. We've seen in the presentations what it can be like in recent years. It is one of the main intrigues what is will really be like at the exhibition, which will be held in Berlin from 18 to 21 September.
However, some details of the development were revealed to the investors at the EcoFest-2018.
Features and prospects.
SkyWay high speed transport is one of the most ambitious technology trends: 500 km/h at an the hight of several meters above the ground with maximum comfort and safety. Overcoming huge distances in a matter of hours for the price which is often even lower than on the railway.
Given the low cost of construction and economical energy consumption, a ticket Minsk – Moscow will cost about $ 30 after the implementation of the project, and this trip will take about a half hour. It's against 50 dollars and 9 and a half hours in an econom-class train, offered as transport services today.
At InnoTrans 2018, the difference between transport of the past and the future transport will be felt in the truest sense, when being among the first ones in testing the interior of the high-speed module and evaluating its design.
High speed transport systems in the short term, will also facilitate social and economic development. They will increase mobility, speed up the turnover, will provide the basis for the development and expansion of power supply and information network, without disrupting the ecology of those areas in which the tracks will be laid. Along the tracks, linear cities will start being formed, being created a fundamentally new logic: pedestrian, clean, affordable, safe and comfortable to stay at.
One will be able to visualize it in the contours of the high-speed module already on 18 September. It was expected that soon after this, the system would show itself in action, however, this moment is a little delayed.. But, however, not for a long time.
Test sites
As General Designer Anatoliy Yunitskiy, said in his report at the EcoFest 2018, the construction of the high-speed track with a length of not less than 25 km necessary to reach the declared speeds, is planned to be constracted in the UAE. In Belarus, where the start of such a construction was planned 2 years ago, this has not happened yet.
The officials of the Republic refused in the allocation of the land, citing the fact that the SkyWay arguments are unconvincing, as in the swamp, where the high speed track will run, many valuable species of trees will be cut down, and supposedly, a large number of birds will die because of a high-speed unibus. This is despite the fact that the project organization had completed all the necessary bureaucratic procedures in collecting 16 approvals, beginning from power and communication engineers and ending with firefighters and environmentalists.
The UAE government, on the contrary, considered the prospect of SkyWay and supported the project.
According to Anatoliy Yunitskiy, the government of the Emirates has confirmed their words with deeds, having allocated the land free of charge: a total of more than 50 hectares, with the market value of hundreds of millions of dollars, for the two SkyWay technological platforms. One of such sites is the required 25-km length one, where Anatoliy Yunitskiy intends to get speed of up to 600 km/h, with the extension of the site up to 60 km, where soon, the forevacuum Huper U tube will be constructed, in which the speed of 1250 km/h will be achieved!
Higher, higher ... hyper!
The idea of the Hyper U project, which was first announced at the EcoFest 2018, is a 40-year Yunitskiy's work: he began it in 70-ies of the last century, even before the invention of SkyWay. Over the years, all the technical solutions have already been created, and it will be another breakthrough transport technology, but radically different from the Hyperloop. Back in 1995, the inventor described it in details in his monograph
Quotation: "At speeds of over 200 m/s or 720 km/h, the transport system should be placed inside a special 2-3 meter diameter tube, from which air is pumped out. The tube can be placed both, above and below the ground, and under the water at depths of 10-100 meters, so as not to interfere with navigation and not to be subjected to the ravages of the elements."
In the offshore area, it is assumed that such a track will be located in a submarine tube-tunnel, made with zero buoyancy, since at such a depth the impact of destructive storms is excluded. The tunnel can go in large depth to bypass powerful sea currents. In order to provide the tunnel with the excess buoyancy, in other words, to prevent flooding of the tube under the influence of moving load, the special floats, anchored at the bottom of the sea, are used.
It is interesting that, given the low material and rare embed anchor rods – at distances from 100 m to 10 km from each other -- the sea depth does not matter for the cost of the transport system!
Small in size, the intermediate supports may be placed inside the tube-tunnel, made of steel or prestressed concrete having an inner diameter of 2.5-3 m. It is stretched in the longitudinal direction, therefore, it is a prestressed construction, and works like a string.
At the present stage of the hyperspeed transport development, Anatoliy Yunitskiy pushed the limit of the systems' perfection even further than described by him in 1995. However, the premiere industrial designs of Hyper U and the speed records of over 1000 km/h – is, though not too distant, but still the future.
The first sample of the SkyWay high-speed rolling stock, which can accelerate to 500 km/h is the today's reality, the construction of 25-kilometer track for it is the tomorrow's reality, which will come quite soon, and after that, the concept of "transport" will take on new meaning.