Originally Posted By wahooskipper How much distance does a train travelling at 200 mph need to stop? They can't get Amtrak trains to stop before hitting stalled vehicles.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss For a number of years, the Nozomi 500 was the world's fastest scheduled train service. Running from Hiroshima to Kokura, a distance of 192 kilometers, at an average speed of 261.8 km/h. That train was overtaken last year by a French TGV, which runs a 289.9 kilometer run at an average 263.3 km/h. The current absolute speed record for a conventional train is also held by France's TGV, when TGV-POS set 4402 hit 574.8 km/h this past April. That's only about eight km/h slower than the current record for a maglev train.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<How much distance does a train travelling at 200 mph need to stop? They can't get Amtrak trains to stop before hitting stalled vehicles.>> I don't think the bullets would have any chance of stopping in time once the engineer saw something. I'm quite certain that the tracks the bullets run on are constructed so that there are no grade level crossings.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<How much distance does a train travelling at 200 mph need to stop? They can't get Amtrak trains to stop before hitting stalled vehicles.>> About five miles, which is why high speed rail lines are built without grade crossings.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss ^^Fives miles is normal stopping distance; not sure what emergency stopping distance would be. But still long, given that a train could weigh anywhere from 400-800 metric tons... and that's without passengers.
Originally Posted By jonvn I've actually seen the Boeing supersonic at the Hiller Museum, it's five miles from me. It's a pretty cool museum, lots of stuff from all over the world in it, and I decorted a room in my house with stuff from the gift shop.
Originally Posted By Mr X Russ, yeah as far as I know all the bullets (shinkansen to quote "proper" terminology) in Japan are elevated or in some other way kept off any roads...no crossings, and it would take a VERY determined kid to get in there and play on the tracks or something (the fences are scrutinized and maintained as well..since even a stray animal would not be a good thing on the tracks!). That's one of the reasons Acela is a noble project but foolishly excecuted imo (they use the same...dang...tracks...as all the other trains!). Jon, I'd love to check that place out someday...is the plane a mock up, or a prototype or something?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss They have an ex-Air France Concorde at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum annex by Dulles Airport here in northern VA, plus hundreds of other historic aircraft and space vehicles: Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Enola Gay, an SR-71 Blackbird, the prototype for the Boeing 707 among them. Definitely a must-see for anyone visiting the D.C. area.
Originally Posted By jonvn I've been to the Air and Space Museum. The most interesting thing to me was how small Skylab was inside. I wasn't even able to fully stand up inside level you walk on. It was made for very short people.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss That's the main museum downtown on the National Mall. They have a new Air and Space Museum out by Dulles airport, the Udvar-Hazy facility. It's a HUGE hanger-like structure, big enough to hold all the aircaft indoors. The drawback is, while the museum itself is free, parking is $12.00. You can get a free bus ride from the Mall though.
Originally Posted By Mr X **It was made for very short people.** Or, perhaps, made for people who tended to float?
Originally Posted By trekkeruss I don't know how tall astronauts are on average, but you'd think NASA would want smaller ones. I'm sure they'd rather have a 150 lb. astronaut and be able to carry 50 lbs. of payload than a 175 lb. astronaut and only 25 lbs. of payload.
Originally Posted By Mr X Bunch a cockpit jockeys, if you ask me. Richard Fish's Uncle had the right idea.
