Project X. Transport System.

Project No. PX0066.

Lets face it, there isn't a good mode of transport at the moment.

Cars can't get any faster without some sort of control taken away from the driver. They are out in the weather, they deteriorate either by design, use or weather, they cost a fortune to make, maintain and dispose of, they pollute etc. etc. Planes are the safest form of transport but theres a huge operation to go through even before reaching your seat. Ships or the sea in general, is slow, they take great resources and cash to build and are expensive to maintain, they pollute on a grand scale etc.

What we want is an enclosure for ourselves without sitting with strangers, not have to control anything and even feel safe enough to go to sleep, be at the right temperature and dry, be able to get somewhere super fast and be able to do this from your own house without having to go to your mode of transport holding an umbrella or getting into it when its been super-heated by the sun ! I will leave you to think of the endless possibilities.

Does anyone remember the air tubes that used to be in department stores for sending notes between departments ? The sales assistant would take a small tube, remove one end cap, place the note in the tube, replace the cap and put the whole thing into what looked like a drain pipe. It would disappear at high speed and end up in another dept. in seconds. Our system is based on this. It would be underground. The "Buggies" travelling in the tube would hold one person and not have any moving parts except the door. You would not have time to talk to anyone so having a big buggy with several persons where you can talk is obsolete. Mobile device use will come in here anyway. Along the tube at regular intervals would be a valve and a compressor. As the buggy approached the valve a sensor would pick it up and open the valve and start the next compressor. The last compressor would be switched off. If there was a blockage the buildup of air would slow you down. The target speed is 1000 kph although much higher speeds are possible limited only by air pressure. This should reduce journey times quite a bit. During testing using 2" tubing 48 Gs were generated when the buggy went around a shallow bend. There would have to be a sensor and control system controlling air pressure to correct this and give a smooth ride. The current system of A and B roads becoming slower and eding at a stop on your drive could be incorporated here where the pressure and speed get higher as the "road" becomes less bendy. Having the tube profile oval and "banking" the profile on bends would solve the problem and push the rider into the seat rather than from side to side. The goal is to have every person owning their own buggy in a "garage" under their house or in a central garage. The buggies would not be belching smoke and would not be subject to human error. The time saved travelling would boost a countries economy no end. Weather ? Not a problem. Space used by tarmac ? Return it to the wild. The most common pastime during travel in your buggy would be sleep but not for long as you have to remember you will be travelling 500 kmh faster than your average jet liner. Your mobile device would act as your moving map destination information as the system would know where it is aty any given moment and make sure your buggy was routed to where you want to go.

We require ideas on this subject.

It has been pointed out that if the whole system was underground then it would survive terrorist attacks and also be protected from high winds and tornados in the future which will be a result of global warming. Project X staff predict we will be living underground in the future anyway.

Certainly a good idea and as trains get faster and are more likely to be targeted by wrongdoers we are going to see more incidents.

Please E-Mail.

Some new ideas sent in :

To have the tube the shape of a human sitting upright to get maximum comfort with lowest tube profile for higher pressure. The human could only be facing forwards.

Have a video monitor showing something along the lines of Google Earth which is zoomable and shows what is above ground where you are and gives cockpit view as if you were in a plane flying at the same speed. Naturally, you would have all the other "in flight" entertainment also.

Slightly modified oil pipeline technology could be used to build the tubes.

Don't you just cringe when you stand on an underground train platform and look at the ancient, dangerous stuff around you !

A smaller version of the machine that built the Channel Tunnel could be used and both ways could be built at the same time.

The buggies should be super-simple with no moving parts except the door. Hopefully you will not be in the buggy long enough to need an air conditioning system although if fresh air was used in the tubes you would not need anything. Also in case of a jam, it is a must that fresh air is used in case the passengers are there for a while. Some think that air should be taken in at one compressor and expelled at the next. This would save problems with airborne bacteria being passed around the world, avoid more than one compressor being on at a time and it would ensure fresh air in the tubes all the time.

Vast pressures would not be needed if the buggies were only one human wide.

A "road system" of pressures could be used. Low pressure to get you out of "the end of your road", higher pressures in tubes representing B roads and up to high pressures and sweeping bends similar to motorways to the intercontinental routes being super fast straight tubes.

Tubes under the sea bed would have a larger third tube as the air supply. All tubes could be incorporated in a block section to avoid leakage and distortion.

 A note from me : If this were to come about and became the only form of transport there should be centres where you can go and drive your old preserved vehicle or ride on a train etc. just to show the young ones how we used to get around. There will be laughs about how we used to try to get home nose to tail in driving rain, passing each other only feet away at closing speeds of 140 MPH looking at dials and gauges, trying to control over a ton of flying metal, passing less fortunate individuals, some injured or even dead with 20 or 30 emergency personnel trying to help them and get the carriageway open again and there will be horror about the costs, the rotating engine parts, the heat generated instead of forward motion and putting super flammable foul smelling liquid into a hole with people smoking and hot exhausts nearby and then sitting on a tank of it for great lengths of time while it is burnt to form gasses that we know cannot escape the planet. We were really stupid. The government would charge you 96% of your fuel bill in tax, charge you the same for using your vehicle everyday or just once a year, let garages charge you a fortune for the car, and then to get it serviced knowing that the greater the amount of money you are charged the more VAT they get to spend on their flats, force you to fix it for a test that they then charge you for again. They then charge you to park it in places you want to go and worst of all, let manufacturers sell you cars that do twice the speed limit knowing they will get a fortune again for speeding fines. I could go on forever.

In fact I will. Planes. Great to ride on but spoilt by the fact that you could fall out of the sky if any of 1000s of different systems failed. Tons of fuel is burned every trip, colossal amounts of money have been spent even before you get on it. Look at the A380 Airbus. How much did they spend before it took on passengers ? Its a big fantastic looking lumbering giant that still only does 500 odd kph. The rigmarole trying to get to the airport, find a parking space, 3 hours getting checked in spending a fortune even before you get on the plane, worrying about the weather or if the pilot bought his pilots licence in a Bombay hotel, did they remember to attach all the hoses after the last engine change ? Boeing. Still building what is essentially a World War Two bomber. Concorde come and gone. A step in the wrong direction.

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