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| Very few people have probably heard of the name "Robert G. LeRicolais", and if you haven't seen his collection of rather peculiar "transportation studies"... ...then you probably would never understand my enthusiasm for what he did for the University of Pennsylvania back in the 1960's. Many people in the world today, still live with the effects of "pre-cubic" planning. This is particularly noticeable in some European and Asian Cities where streets have a tendency to meander along the lines of seemingly very "ancient" pathways... ...perhaps some of these 'streets' follow the paths of least resistance charted even before the paving of roads for wheeled vehicles... ...but we are NOW approaching a New Revolution in ground transportation, that even takes us beyond the use of the WHEEL, perhaps it would be accurate to describe these vehicles as 'TrainPlanes', because while they may look like trains, they certainly do fly! The exciting thing about this development is easy for an Engineer to understand, because they eliminate one of the biggest headaches for Engineers, that of the problem of "friction"... ...which is why most of the products of Industry have a fairly short life-cycle. "Theoretically" a "MagLev" or Magnetic Levitation ground-plane could still be serviceable for the descendants of our present society in 1000 years or more from now! The Train now operating in Shanghai may be obsolete by then, for a whole host of other reasons, such as might happen if they discovered a newly Engineered Operating System that used a lot less electricity, for example, but if properly maintained, it could feasibly still be whisking people to the airport. (Just what sort of planes is waiting for it by then, is anybody's guess!) However, the track is still the most expensive part of this "New Revolution"... ...and it remains VERY expensive... ...which is WHY the studies of LeRicolais are deserving of our attention at this critical juncture of of the introduction of a New Ground Transportation Infrastructure. |