Saturday, September 12, 2009

AEROTRAIN (France) 1967

AEROTRAIN (F) 1967

Not strictly a car manufacturer in the sense - but an interesting vehicle!
It was a proposal to build a Hovercraft Train powered by 2 x rear mounted on the roof Renault Gordini engines and Technical Article appeared in Autocar (GB) 1967 FEB 9th page 47 Volume 126 Issue 3704 the feature was extract from a paper delivered by M Jean Bertin its designer and included a 'cut-a-way illustration

More Information of Aerotrain - is sourced from
see extensive research see wikipedia
below:
""The Aérotrain was a hovercraft train developed in France from 1965 to 1977. The lead engineer was Jean Bertin.

The goal of the Aérotrain was similar to that of the magnetic levitation train: to suspend the train above the tracks so the only resistance is that of air resistance. Consequently, the Aérotrain could travel at very high speeds with reasonable energy consumption and noise levels, but without the technical complexity and expensive tracks of magnetic levitation. This project was abandoned in 1977 due to lack of funding, the death of Jean Bertin, and the adoption of TGV by the French government as its high-speed ground transport solution."

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