T.A.T (TransAtlantic tunnel)
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Well, if a plane losing both engines it can still ditch. If it loses flight controls it can be guided by engine power. And aerodynamics isn't gonna change as it's a law of fluids.
Now for my train arguement....
what if a big fat whale and a giant squid decide to fight on top of the tunnel. well?......huh? Not so safe now is it?
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seal the section ends, blow the explosive bolts and take the section up to the surface (I'd assume surface pressure in the trains so you'd only have to account for equalizing the tunnel on the way up)... extend radio mast and transmit SOS...
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I dunno Rich, the tunnel is 100 ft below water surface, it's electric and fast. I'm guessing it will be cheaper and safer, there can be as many as 50 trains at a given time with 1000 plus passengers travelling to and from New York.
Another advantage is faster cheaper shipping, we all win there.The tension cables are computer controlled and there is a sway tolerance, should a blind whale hit it, I doubt anything will come of it, a submarine is another story, however terrorism will always be all human transports biggest worry.
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@unknownuser said:
Well, if a plane losing both engines it can still ditch. If it loses flight controls it can be guided by engine power. And aerodynamics isn't gonna change as it's a law of fluids.
I know...I was just ignoring those in an attempt at being funny..oh well
@unknownuser said:
what if a big fat whale and a giant squid decide to fight on top of the tunnel. well?......huh? Not so safe now is it?
They would just call Arnold Schwarzenegger, save the day and make a movie in the process.
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yeah i saw that a while back....would be one hell of a trip! although the figures involved in manufacturing were huge....every single steel works in the world working 24 hours a day to produce enough steel!
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where's the like button on this faceUcationSketchBook page?
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Just get Chuck Norris to whup up on them whales and squids, long as we're puttin' in multi-thousand mile tunnels and such.
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The cables should be made of carbon nanotube fibers.
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@olishea said:
yeah i saw that a while back....would be one hell of a trip! although the figures involved in manufacturing were huge....every single steel works in the world working 24 hours a day to produce enough steel!
You CAN do it if you really want it.
In the film 'Sunshine' [when chronic global cooling results from the Sun stuttering] the nations of the Earth gets together to send a space-ship to the Sun and then launch a massive explosion to kick-start the Sun's reactions again...
The film follows the second mission after the first one has failed - each mission costs 4 years of the entire Earth's GDP !!!
I know it's fiction... BUT if push comes to shove we can do whatever is needed - look at WW2 - ridiculous sums/lives spent over a few years to what ends...
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Reading the original post, what first came to mind was super sonic boom, and movement of the earth's plates. Each immense engineering problems. I'm sure that it won't be difficult to think of more. Didn't even think about the manufacturing, and economics ones. Makes going to the Moon fairly easy. Wounder what the EIS would find. If one were required when air transportation was first created, perhaps planes would not have been allowed.
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A 'Lamson Tube System' is old technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatic_tube
My local supermarket uses one to whizz capsules of banknotes from the tills to the office.
The only difference is a matter of scale [something the size of a 'small football' becomes a 'train']... and distance... 40m becomes 4000000m... and the contents aren't inert pieces of paper but human beings...
Apart from that it's all quite doable -
The original Discovery channel idea was based on that, They recon with today's technology it could take weeks to create a vacuum in a tube that size using the biggest pumps available.
These are huge ideas, science fiction with today's technology, but who knows, this could be a reality sooner than we expect as technology breeds technology.
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Brunel made a pressure based 'Atmospheric Railway' system in Victorian England using 'pump-houses' at distances along the track that 'pulled/pushed' the trains. Unfortunately the pressure/vacuum-tubes to which the train was attached had a slot in them sealed by greased leather gaskets and local rats kept eating parts of them. There were miles of them to maintain so it was one of his most notable failures [he also used a different 'broad' gauge on his main railway tracks [compared to almost all other UK railways] which was also problematical...but that's another matter...] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway
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@solo said:
Anyone ever see the episode of Extreme engineering where they discussed the possibility of a tunnel from New York to Paris and London?
Instead of the vacuum based Idea in order to reach the 4000 Mph as they discussed, this is more realistic using Maglev technology (Magnetic levitation) in a closed tunnel speeds up to 1200 Mph can be achieved.
The tunnel will be buoyant and secured/braced to the sea floor, pressure levels controlled by computer for stability. ...Wait, how are they planning on breaking the sound barrier inside of a tunnel WITHOUT using vacuum? Won't that run riot on the structural calcs, with a moving wave of sonic booms running the length of the thing in different directions?
And if they built it NYC to Paris/London, everyone not in the NE US would need to fly to the station, which can completely negate the travel time saved over the Atlantic (Seattle to London - 9 hours. Seattle to NYC then 3 hours on sea-train - 10 hours). Especially when you could just send super-sonic jets over the ocean at higher speeds, lower (initial) cost, and with greater frequently.
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Looks great Solo
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