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Design

The Future Of High-Speed Transportation May Look Like An Amusement Park Ride

China's super-maglev could possibly go as fast as 1,800 mph, despite it looking like a toy.

The next-generation of speedy transportation might not appear like Elon Musk's futuristic-looking Hyperloop, but rather someting you'd find at Toys 'R Us or Six Flags. A new development in China called the super-maglev is a train that uses magnets to lift the shuttle's carriages above the track, eliminating the need for wheels and nixing any friction. Not only would the journey be smoother and faster, but roller coaster-looking system would provide a quiet ride.

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Led by Dr. Deng Zigang at China's Applied Superconductivity Labratory of Southwest Jiaotong University, the first high temperature ring test hit speeds of 250 miles per hour in February 2013, but the engineers are hopeful it will eventually be able to reach 1,800 mph.

Maglev trains have been around for over 30 years, but none have come close to the speed and efficiency of this new incarnation. Currently, the world's fastest passenger-carrying train, the Shanghai Maglev Train, can go 268 mph, but with the super-maglev's vacuum tube (again, making it look like an amusement park ride) it could possibly trump this record.

It may look unintimidating, but we'll take the super-maglev if it means we can get to work faster and sleep in tranquility along the way. See some images of the test vehicle, and for the specifics check out Dr. Deng Zigang's paper on the project here.

Images via Imaginechina/REXh/t Daily Mail

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