1. Alternative Transportation

Initial Thoughts

At a first glance, the question that pops into my mind is "What is trailing behind the hover craft?". It appears to be a tether that links the hover craft to a track. It would believe the sole purpose of the linkage is to limit the hover craft from rising too high and also to limit the hover craft's movement to a parallel motion along the rail.

Pros

1. Large Interior space

I would estimate there to be 1000-1500 seats available on this hovercraft. Compared to a Boeing 747, which has 416-660, this hovercraft beats it by far. In addition to having a larger passenger capacity, there is also more free space compared to any traditional airplane. Comfort would be a lot higher in this aircraft compared to any other vehicle in the market.

2. Entrance integrated with station

There's a unique design concept here, and it is that the landing dock for this hovercraft is integrated into the station. Compared to an airplane, in order to load and unload passengers, a jet bridge would always have to be erected. This design would allow for passengers to load and unload more efficiently.

Cons

1. No Inner-city locations

It appears that the location of the station is off of a highway. Because of the shear size of the aircraft, this design would only be plausible where high-rise buildings are scarce. This means the location of stations could only be between cities where there is no structures in between the cities.

2. Downward vertical winds 

There are four vertical jets that are pointed downwards to allow this aircraft to lift off. The force required to lift off the aircraft would be extremely large, and would disrupt anything beneath it. Take a helicopter for example. The wind generated by the rotor is very disruptive for a 2-5 passenger helicopter. Imagine the force generated by the jets which needs to lift off the mass of itself and also 1000-1500 passengers.

3. Turning

I would imagine the track would have to bend or curve at some point, and performing the maneuver does not appear possible without very large and dangerous stresses on the linkage connecting the aircraft to the track. Without going too in depth, failure could be induce on the linkage.

Final Thoughts and Verdict

While the design and concept is very appealing, it does not appear to be safe by any means An existing alternative would be a sky train, similar to the one located in Vancouver. Space would also be a large issue with this design that limits it's feasibility within the city.

Verdict: Fail

Link: https://www.facebook.com/worldbulletin/videos/1136275596399437/

Hello World!

My intentions of this blog is to critique and pass judgement on engineering designs.