Radical Transportation Projects Of The Past And Future

An artist rendering of SkyTran. (Credit: Skytran)

This article is a companion piece to Hyperloop Is Real: Meet The Startups Selling Supersonic Travel from the March 2, 2015 issue of FORBES

The Hyperloop isnt the only radical transportation project out there. Here are a few that may lay ahead for the future and one from the past.

SKYTRAN Inspired by the 40-year-old personal rapid transit system in Morgantown, W.V., Skytran is a high-speed (150 mph) network of two-person pods that whisk people on suspended maglev tracks. A test system is slated this year in Tel Aviv, with a bigger city network projected for completion by the end of 2016. Skytran says tickets will sell for less than a bus fare. We doubt that. Cost: $80 million.

TERRAFUGIA FLYING CAR Its 2015 and we still dont have flying cars? Terrafugia aims to change that with its Transition street legal airplane, enabling you to commute like the future Marty McFly. There have been successful test flights, and deliveries are anticipated for 2016. Still, flying cars have been promised for so long well believe it when we take one to work. Cost: $279,000

PROJECT HARP Jules Verne imagined a day when the astronauts would be fired from a gigantic gun to the Moon. In the 1960s, the U.S. and Canada tried to build guns that could shoot satellites into Earth orbit. Despite perpetual funding woes and political obstacles, the project was able to fire test payloads into space up to 112 miles before it was shut down in 1967.

SHWEEB Google invested $1 million into Shweeb, which is developing a system of monorails with individual pods that you pedal with your feet. The company built a 220-yard prototype at an amusement park in New Zealand. Cool for cities, but what rhymes with Shweeb?

ET3 Two weeks before announcing Hyperloop, Elon Musk met with the founder of ET3, who is talking up a network of vacuum tunnels through which car-sized capsule fly using magnetic levitation. The company claims its system could be built for a quarter of the cost of a freeway and support more traffic. Its currently seeking out sites to build a three-mile prototype that can travel at speeds over 370 mph.

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Radical Transportation Projects Of The Past And Future