Abstract
The current flight passenger-transport and cargo systems have reached the peak of their development. In the last 30 years there has been no increase in speed or reductions in trip costs. The transportation industry needs a revolutionary idea, which allows jumps in speed and delivery capability, and dramatic drops in trip price. The author offers a new idea in transportation in which trip (flight) time practically does not depend on distance, and vehicle load capability doubles and which has a driving engine that is located on the ground and can use any cheap source of energy.
The author develops the theory and provides computations for a project containing five subprojects united by the common idea: acceleration of the air vehicle on the ground and continuation of flight by inertia (high speed catapulting). The initial speed is 290 – 6000 m/s, the range is 50 –10000 km (short, average, and long distances). Short transport system has a range on the order of 50-70 km, for example: city – sub-city, strait and air bridges such as across the Straits of Gibraltar 16 km, the English Channel 40 km, Bering Straits 100 km (Russia–America), Sakhalin–Asia 20 km, Russia–Japan, etc. The long distance has range up 10000 km such as New York-Paris 5838 km, Washington-London 7373 km, San- Francisco – Tokyo 8277 km, San-Francisco – Vladivostok (Russia) 8377 km, New York – Moscow 7519 km, Moscow – Beijing 5800 km, Moscow – Tokyo 7487 km, New York – Berlin 6392 km, and so on.
The proposed catapult system having a length of 400 km can be used as a space launch system which decreases the space launch cost by hundreds of times. This also may be used as a new conventional high speed (up 1000 km/h) transport system between cities. That will be significantly cheaper then used MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) systems, because for levitation of the vehicle we employ conventional wings. This system may be also used for the mass launch of bombs (projectiles) in war. The article presents some promising patents on electric catapult transportation.
Keywords: Air catapult transport, air kinetic transport, catapult aviation, cattran, new passenger and cargo transport, new space launch system, new suspending high speed ground system, skimplane
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