Recent Applications
The Aeromovel Corporation markets an automated people mover that is air driven. The elevated lightweight trains ride on a concrete box girder containing electric motors that drive air inside the girder, creating a constant airflow. Each car has a square plate protruding into the box girder. The plate is rotated into the airflow to catch the wind and accelerate the car.
Systems have been built in Porto Alegre, Brazil (a two-station demonstration line) and in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta, Indonesia (a 2-mile (3 km) six-station loop serving a theme park). Construction of the first commercial line connecting the Estação Aeroporto (Airport Station) and Salgado Filho International Airport is currently underway; the single-line will be 0.6-mile (1 km) long with a travel time of 90 seconds.
A web page describing a system called 'Whoosh' was available for a time. The system is a single monorail track of the vacuum tube with a track either side. The piston in the tube is connected to the carriage below which is supported by wheels running on the tracks each side of the tube.
Flight Rail Corp. is developing a high-speed atmospheric train that uses vacuum/air pressure to move passenger modules along an elevated guideway. Stationary power systems create vacuum/pressure inside a continuous pneumatic tube (power tube) located centrally below rails within a truss assembly. As these power systems pull the air from the power tube, they create a vacuum in front of a free piston that is guided by rails inside the power tube. The free piston is magnetically coupled to the passenger modules above. Additionally, air enters the tube behind the free piston to create differential pressure. The magnetic coupling allows the interior of the power tube to be a closed system to maintain the desired pressure differential in the tube. The transportation unit operates above the power tube on a pair of parallel, steel rails that receive, support, and guide the wheels of the truck assemblies. The company currently has a 1/6 scale pilot model operating on an outdoor test guideway. The guideway is 1385 feet (422 m) long and incorporates 2%, 6%, and 10% grades. The pilot model operates at speeds up to 25 m.p.h. (40.25 km/h) which equates to a scale speed of 150 m.p.h. (241.50 km/h).
Read more about this topic: Atmospheric Railway