Future Ways - Fast, Faster and the Fastest

Here we are today, still wasting time in traffic jams, stuck in a pressurized cabin for long hours in flights. For the speed that was promised to us in many futuristic Hollywood sci-fi flicks, take a look at these three technologies that will make your travel Fast, Faster and Fastest!

SEGWAY/GENERAL MOTORS EN-V

The Segway personal transporter was called revolutionary, but still you don’t find people riding to work on them. The computer version of this model has a max speed of 20 Km/h, faster than walking. So in an attempt to make it little bit more like a car, the scooter motor collaborated with GM to design a concept vehicle called EN-V (Electric Networked-Vehicle).

These cars can talk to each other, and not just "Hey." It's like "Get out of my way," with one car being able to automatically brake and avoid another. They can also say "Follow me," a practice with one car automatically (and safely) running in the tracks of the other.

Perhaps, the best trick being the car can park itself!

Sadly there is neither turbo boost nor air brake buttons in the structure at this point, but we can hope for a future release.

CHINA RAILWAYS (Wuhan-Guangzhou Train)

The world’s fastest rail line, the China railways Wuhan-Guangzhou Train, also called as Hexie Hao (Harmony Express) reaches 350 Km/h, beating the record of 320 Km/h of France’s TGV.

In a trial run, the train had nearly touched 400 Km/h – faster than F1 car!

The service covers the 1000 Km route between Wuhan and Guangzhou in just 3 hours, a journey that takes 12 to 15 hours by regular rail or car.

Each train consists of two 8-car electric multiple units coupled together to make a 16-car train. The trains are based on technology developed by Siemens and Kawasaki modified to the standards of China Railway High-speed. The trains used on the line are manufactured in China.

The Harmony express is a part of China’s massive rail effort which aims to build 30,000 Km of railways in next five years!

BOEING X-51 Hypersonic Aircraft

Imagine boarding a plane in Mumbai and stepping out in New York city in 2 and half hours- a trip that normally takes about 15 hours!

A supersonic aircraft flying at 10 times the speed of sound- Mach 10 – could do it.

The X-51 program is a consortium between Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocket-dyne. The customers are the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with support from NASA.

They are testing their “Supersonic Combustion ramjet” engine to achieve Mach 7, which is 7 times the speed of sound and 10 times as fast as conventional airliner.

Unfortunately, the “missile” shaped X-51 is still more like a missile than an airplane and the wanna-be hypersonic travelers need to wait for a future model.