© Manyone
October 2021
Flying on a train
While the Hyperloop has not made its way into the real world of transportation yet, an even more extreme idea is approaching at high speed: the Aeroslider maglev concept that Manyone, a team of designers and strategists in Denmark, has come up with.
The train with a length of 250 meters (820 feet) is supposed to travel at a speed of 800 km/h (500 mph) – without an onboard propulsion system. Propelled through a connected system of electromagnetic portals perched on 20-meter (65 feet)-tall pylons in the countryside, the maglev Aeroslider would use no rails, tubes or other physical stabilizers but have a unique feature: reservoirs in the capsule filled with helium to reduce the weight of this “rocket.”
It remains to be seen whether the train will ever zip from Moscow to Shanghai in 12 hours as imagined. But, as Albert Einstein said: “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.”