Maglev - Urban Maglev

URBAN MAGLEV

General Atomics is developing Urban Maglev technology sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration and funded under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

The system is levitated, propelled, and guided by electromagnetic forces. Levitation is achieved by using simple, passive permanent magnets arranged in a “Halbach” array configuration. Propulsion and guidance are achieved by a linear synchronous motor mounted on the track. The uniqueness of the approach is its simplicity, ruggedness, and performance. It is designed to operate on a 7% grade, 50 meter (164 ft.) turn radius, and 25mm (1 in.) levitation gap, and offers quiet operation.

Use of elevated guideways, coupled with the quiet operation of the system, eliminates the need to tunnel underground for noise-abatement, and can result in significantly lower system costs. We have built full-scale hardware to demonstrate the levitation, propulsion, guidance, and location-detection systems. In 2004 we built a 120-m (400-ft.) test track with a full-scale chassis and power system at General Atomics in San Diego, CA.

Led by General Atomics, the Maglev project is being developed by an industrial consortium that includes Carnegie Mellon University, Hall Industries, Mackin Engineering Company, PJ Dick, Sargent Electric Company, Union Switch & Signal, and the Western Pennsylvania Maglev Development Corporation. In addition, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) is a public partner. Booz-Allen & Hamilton and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory also support the team.