Railways – Tubular way
Patent
1994-05-27
1995-07-25
Oberleitner, Robert J.
Railways
Tubular way
104 71, B61B 1310
Patent
active
054352533
ABSTRACT:
A vacuum highway seal provides an effective barrier for maintaining a separation between the atmosphere and a vacuum highway, which allows vehicles to reach near orbital speeds on the surface of the earth. The vacuum highway seal is composed of a pool of water with a pipe extending from several feet below the surface to approximately forty feet above the surface of the water. Water is pushed by atmospheric pressure from the pool to approximately thirty two feet above the pool into the pipe. A vehicle is loaded with cargo and/or people at the dock in the pool, then is submerged and travels to the entrance of the pipe underneath the water. The pipe is tapered and sloped to allow an easy transition from the pool into the vacuum highway. As the water ballast used to submerge the vehicle is expelled the vehicle is accelerated to the surface of the water and the vacuum highway beyond. Once in the vacuum highway a second propulsion system is used to propel and lift the vehicle. Very high velocities can be reached without the forces of drag and friction, which are not present on a levitating vehicle in a vacuum. To maintain the vacuum of the vacuum highway the seal has a large volume maintained by vacuum pumps. To reduce leakage, a closed loop system pumps deaerated water into the pipe near the upper surface of the water thus sweeping away the air entrapped on the surface of the vehicle as it travels through the water. Once the vehicle reaches the destination end of the vacuum highway, it descends through a second vacuum highway seal and proceeds to the dock to allow passengers to exit or cargo to be unloaded. The vacuum highway has application with propulsion technologies which will not pressurize the vacuum highway with gases.
REFERENCES:
patent: 929972 (1909-08-01), M'Giehan
patent: 3108546 (1963-10-01), Hafner
patent: 3848536 (1974-11-01), Chukhanov et al.
patent: 4102272 (1978-07-01), Lehl et al.
patent: 4148260 (1979-04-01), Minovitch
patent: 4567817 (1986-02-01), Fleischer et al.
Oberleitner Robert J.
Rutherford Kevin D.
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