Aerotrain
The Aérotrain was a concept of using jet engines powered monorail - air cushion suspension railway , which in France was followed from 1965 to 1974.
history
The hovercraft technology in 1958 its beginning; and Jean Bertin , a French pioneer in this field, began at this time with his work. He quickly came up with the concept of a track-guided hovercraft and from 1962 to 1963 constructed a scale model and a 20-meter-long section of a possible test track. As a result, he was granted government subsidies in 1965 to continue the project.
Two test tracks were created. The first, 6.7 km long route was built between Gometz-le-Châtel and Limours in the Essonne department . The second route was 18 km long, ran in a straight line as part of the planned Paris - Orleans route between the villages of Assas and Saran in the Loiret department and was completed in 1969.
The first prototype, Aérotrain 01, set a speed record of 345 km / h on November 14, 1967 on the route between Gometz-le-Châtel and Limours . In 1969, the Aérotrain 02 succeeded in maintaining a speed of 411 km / h over a distance of one kilometer. Between Assas and Saran, another record for rail vehicles was set on March 5, 1974 by the Aérotrain I80 with 430.2 km / h. In total, several thousand trips were made on the two routes.
- Saran Railway Station 47 ° 57 ′ 29.2 " N , 1 ° 53 ′ 33.4" E
- Maintenance platform Chevilly 48 ° 1 ′ 41.4 ″ N , 1 ° 53 ′ 2.8 ″ E
- Assas train station 48 ° 6 ′ 56.6 ″ N , 1 ° 54 ′ 14.4 ″ E
- Rail section in Gometz-le-Châtel 48 ° 40 ′ 21.4 ″ N , 2 ° 8 ′ 12.5 ″ E
- Monument in Gometz-le-Châtel 48 ° 40 ′ 6.1 ″ N , 2 ° 7 ′ 6.3 ″ E
The Aérotrain technology was ultimately abandoned in favor of the TGV concept , as was the other concepts for gas turbine - powered high-speed trains .
technology
roadway
Both test routes had an inverted T-shaped concrete profile with turning platforms at both ends, as the railcars could not go backwards. The first test section between Gometz-le-Châtel and Limours was at ground level. The second test section between Assas in the municipality of Ruan and Saran was raised five meters above the ground. The maintenance platform was halfway there.
Two air cushions were created between the railcar and the carriageway: one to make the train levitate and one to enclose the center rail and serve as track guidance. The designers cited the advantage that by creating air cushions, the weight of the vehicles weighing up to 22 t would be distributed over a large area, whereas conventional rail vehicles would place a point load on the wheelset. According to the operator, the routes therefore never had to be repaired during the entire test run.
drive
The first test drives ran with propellers and rocket motors , and later with a jet engine borrowed from aircraft construction . After the oil crisis in 1972 it was planned to operate the system with a linear motor , but this did not materialize. For the use of the linear motor, it was planned to replace the concrete guide rail with one made of steel or aluminum.
Meaning and ending
The Aérotrain was one of the technical prestige objects of France from the 1960s to 1970s like the emerging nuclear technology , the tidal power station Rance , the Concorde or ships like the " France ".
The reasons why it did not spread beyond the trial period can in part be explained by technical disadvantages. Above all, these were the high specific energy consumption, which was particularly important due to the first oil crisis , and the high noise level. Further problems were the difficult implementation of switch constructions and the incompatibility with the conventional rail network, as also applies to the magnetic levitation train . In addition, disputes are cited between the spatial planning authority promoting the Aérotrain and the SNCF , which preferred a conventional high-speed train, the TGV .
A contract dated June 21, 1974 for the construction of a line from Cergy to La Defense was canceled a few weeks after it was signed by the then newly elected French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The last run of the Aérotrain I80 took place on December 27, 1977.
The test facility was only partially demolished; the route and the platforms of the stations are still clearly visible in the landscape. From the train from Paris to Orléans you can see large parts of the route a few minutes before Orléans in the direction of travel on the left. In 2007 the proposal came up to use the route as a mounting platform for solar cells. Because of the construction of the A19 motorway , a 120 m long section of the test route of the Aérotrain urbain 2 km north of Chevilly was completely demolished, which interrupted the route.
See also
Web links
- Photo documentation about the Aérotrain (English)
- Aerotrain
- The French suspension railway project Aérotrain
- Extensively illustrated German-language page
- Monster on rails - “The draft.” On one day ( spiegel.de ) from March 6, 2008 on the Aérotrain 01, 02, S44 and I-80 (I for “Interurbain”).
- Direction 2000 - preview of tomorrow's world. Documentation, ZDF 1972. From about 7:35 am the Aérotrain I80-250 (model before the conversion to jet propulsion) can be seen in detail.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jane Collins: The fastest trains. Unipart-Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8122-200-X , pp. 58-60.
- ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Monster on rails: The draft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - one day. Retrieved June 26, 2017 .
- ^ Guichard Mourad: Le photovoltaïque prend la voie de l'aérotrain. Liberation.fr, June 20, 2007, accessed August 12, 2010 .
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