Jet trains and aerowagons




 *  Not to be confused with:- The 1950s\1960s American GM 'St. Louis'\'Pennsy' Aerotrain, the experimental 1970s high-speed gas-turbine passenger "JetTrain" created by Bombardier :JetTrain, or The Candian "Renaissance" sub-class\sub-brand "Jet Train": Bombardier unveiles the "Jet Train", the American Airoenginig firm AeroTrain Corp., or The "Railjet" (branded as railjet) high-speed train of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) and Czech Railways (ČD): Railjet. 

The idea
These were high-tech experimental high-speed rail-car fitted with an either a jet engine, turbojet engine or an aircraft engine and propeller traction.

A turbojet train is a train powered by turbojet engines. Like a jet aircraft, but unlike a gas turbine locomotive, the train is propelled by the jet thrust of the engines, rather than by its wheels. Only a handful of jet-powered trains have been built, for experimental research in high-speed rail.

Turbojet engines have been built with the engine incorporated into a railcar combining both propulsion and passenger accommodation rather than as separate locomotives hauling passenger coaches.

 Turbojet engines are most efficient at high speeds and so they have been applied to high-speed passenger services, rather than freight.

A hovertrain is a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, and the conventional railway bed with a paved road-like surface, known as the track or guideway. The concept aims to eliminate rolling resistance and allow very high performance, while also simplifying the infrastructure needed to lay new lines.

Hovertrains were seen as a relatively low-risk and low-cost way to develop high-speed inter-city train service, in an era when conventional rail seemed stuck to speeds around 140 mph (230 km/h) or less. By the late 1960s, major development efforts were underway in France, the UK and the USA. While they were being developed, British Rail was running an extensive study of the problems being seen at high speeds on conventional rails. This led to a series of new high-speed train designs in the 1970s, starting with their own APT. Although the hovertrains still had reduced infrastructure costs compared to the APT and similar designs like the TGV, in practice this was offset by their need for entirely new lines. Conventional wheeled trains could run at low speed on existing lines, greatly reducing capital expenditures in dense areas. Interest in hovertrains waned, and major development had ended by the mid-1970s.

Hovertrains were also developed for smaller systems, including personal rapid transit systems that were a hot topic in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this role their ability to float over small imperfections and debris on the "rails" was a practical advantage, although it competed with the maglev concept that had the same advantages. The only hovertain to see commercial service was the Otis Hovair system. Originally developed at General Motors as an automated guideway transit system, GM was forced to divest the design as part of an anti-trust ruling. The design eventually ended up at Otis Elevator who later replaced its linear motor with a cable pull and sold the resulting design for people mover installations all over the world.

Hovertrain is a generic term, and the vehicles are more commonly referred to by the projects that developed them in different countries – in the UK they are known as tracked hovercraft, in the US they are tracked air-cushion vehicles, and in France they are the aerotrains. News sources often conflate maglev trains with hovertrains, as both are levitated above the running surface, "hovering" over them.

The big flaw on fuel and economics
The jet engines, turbojet engines or an aircraft engines used a horrifyingly high amount of fuel and cost a horrendously high amount of money to maintain and feed.

Overview
The Aerowagon or Aeromotowagon (Russian: Аэроваго́н, аэродрези́на) was an experimental high-speed railcar fitted with an aircraft engine and propeller traction invented by Valerian Abakovsky, a Soviet engineer from Latvia. It produced speeds of up to 140 kilometres per hour (87 miles per hour). The Aerowagon was originally intended to carry Soviet officials.

Fatal crash incident
On 24 July 1921, a group of delegates to the First Congress of the Profintern, led by Fyodor Sergeyev, took the Aerowagon from Moscow to the Tula collieries to test it. Abakovsky was also on board. Although they successfully arrived in Tula, on the return route to Moscow the Aerowagon derailed at high speed near Serpukhov, killing six of the 22 people on board. A seventh man later died of his injuries.

Deaths
The following people died as a result of the accident:


 * 1) Ivan Constantinov, Bulgarian delegate
 * 2) John Freeman, Australian delegate
 * 3) Oskar Heilbrich, German delegate
 * 4) John William Hewlett, British delegate
 * 5) Fyodor Sergeyev (Artyom)
 * 6) Otto Strupat, German delegate
 * 7) Abakovsky himself, at the age of 25.

The seven men killed at the time of the crash were buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, after lying in state at the House of the Unions.

Legacy
The Aerowagon was a precursor to the German Schienenzeppelin railcar, the American M-497 Black Beetle railcar and the Soviet turbojet train, all three of them being experimental vehicles featuring the combination of railcar and aircraft engine.

American Rohr Aerotrain


In 1970, Rohr Industries decided to develop a tracked air-cushion vehicle as part of a project by the Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA) to sponsor development of new mass-transit technology to meet future transit requirements.

The Rohr prototype, officially called the Urban Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (UTACV) and colloquially the Rohr Aerotrain, was propelled by linear motor and was designed to carry 60 passengers at 150 mph (240 km/h). It had a length of 94 ft (28 m) and an empty weight of 46,000 pounds (20.8 metric tons).

A test track was built in Pueblo, Colorado, where the prototype reached speeds of 145 mph (constrained by the length of track). Funding from UMTA ceased and the Rohr Industries Aerotrain was never commercialized. The Rohr prototype aérotrain remained on the premises of the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum until July 2009. The prototype is now located at the Pueblo Railway museum. The museum plans to open an aerotrain exhibition within the test vehicle in the next few months.

American Linear Induction Motor Research Vehicle (LIMRV)
Since the Bertin team had not yet used a LIM, the first part of the TACV program was dedicated to LIM development. Garrett AiResearch built the Linear Induction Motor Research Vehicle (LIMRV), a wheeled vehicle running on standard-gauge railroad track, fitted with a 3000 hp gas turbine generator to supply the LIM with electricity.

The test track for the LIMRV at the HSGTC near Pueblo wasn't yet complete when Garrett delivered the vehicle: the reaction rail in the middle of the tracks was still being installed. Once the track was ready, linear induction motor, vehicle power systems, and rail dynamics testing progressed and by October 1972, a speed of 187.9 mph (302.4 km/h) was achieved. Speed was limited due to the length of track (6.4 mi or 10.3 km) and vehicle acceleration rates. Two Pratt & Whitney J52 jet engines were added to the vehicle to propel the vehicle up to higher speeds, after acceleration the engines were then throttled back so that the thrust equaled their drag. On 14 August 1974, the LIMRV achieved a world record speed of 255.7 mph (411.5 km/h) for vehicles on conventional rail.

British Bennie Railplane
The Bennie Railplane was a form of rail transport invented by George Bennie (1891–1957), which moved along an overhead rail by way of propellers. Bennie, born at Auldhouse, near Glasgow, Scotland began work on the development of his railplane in 1921. In 1929-1930 he built a prototype on a trial stretch of track over a 130-yard (119-metre) line at Milngavie, off the Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway, with one railplane car to demonstrate the system to potential clients. The car ran along an overhead monorail, stabilised by guide rails below. It moved by propellers powered by on-board motors. It was intended to run above conventional railways, separating faster passenger traffic from slower freight traffic. Bennie believed his railplane cars had the capability of travelling up to 120 mph (193 km/h) and would offer a "fast passenger and mails and perishable goods service". Slow and heavy goods freight and local passenger services would continue on the traditional rail service below. Each car could carry a maximum of 48 people, although the prototype had seating for fewer.

In spite of interest from around the world, however, Bennie could not obtain the financial backing he required to develop his revolutionary transport system. The proposed line from Edinburgh to Glasgow was not built, nor was the one between Southport and Blackpool. By 1937, Bennie was bankrupt. He had financed most of the work himself.

The prototype railplane lay rusting in a field at Milngavie until it was sold for scrap in 1956. Bennie died the following year. The original shed where the carriage was built in Main Street, Milngavie is now occupied by a timber merchant, and has a blue commemorative plaque on the outside wall.[

British ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the early 1970s. Some display models and drought plans were made, but later disposed of.

Japanese ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the early 1970s.

Australian ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the late 1960s.

Canadian ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the late 1960s.

French Aérotrain 01, 02, S44, I80\I80-250 and I80-HV
The Aérotrain was a hovertrain developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.

The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance. Consequently, the Aérotrain could travel at very high speeds without the technical complexity and expensive tracks of magnetic levitation.

Rohr Industries, Inc., impressed by Bertin's Aérotrain, licensed some of the technology from him to build Aerotrains in the U.S.

The Rohr Aerotrain was mothballed in 1975, and the French project was abandoned in 1977 due to lack of funding, the death of Jean Bertin, and the adoption of TGV by the French government as its high-speed ground-transport solution.


 * The I-80 HV established the world speed record for overland air cushion vehicles on 5 March 1974 with a mean speed of 417.6 km/h (259.5 mph) and a peak speed of 430.4 km/h (267.4 mph).
 * The track for most Aérotrains are ferroconcrete monorail in an inverted 'T' shape. All tracks were built and used for experimental purposes.
 * The I80's external noise was 90-95 dBA at 65 yards (59 m).

Weimar\Nazi German Schienenzeppelin
The Schienenzeppelin (German: [ˈʃiːnənˌtsɛpəliːn]) or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembled a Zeppelin airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929. Propulsion was by means of a propeller located at the rear: it accelerated the railcar to 230.2 km/h (143 mph) setting the land speed record for a petrol powered rail vehicle. Only a single example was ever built, which due to safety concerns remained out of service and was finally dismantled in 1939.

W. German ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the early 1970s.

Italian ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the early 1970s. Spain was also involved and quit when Italy did.

Swiss ?
Scrapped as preliminary plans in the early 1970s. Austria was also involved and quit when Switzerland did.

Also see

 * 1) HST
 * 2) APT
 * 3) TGV 001
 * 4) Railways
 * 5) Jet packs
 * 6) Civil aircraft
 * 7) Hover trains
 * 8) Maglev trains
 * 9) Gas turbine trains
 * 10) 0 Series Shinkansen
 * 11) GM 'St. Louis' Aerotrain