Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 152 [If we do it right, everyone will make progress]

The current price of a subway car is between RMB 500 million and 800 million, and the weight of a car is about 35 tons. If a subway train has 10 cars, the weight is 350 tons.

If calculated based on a 20% share of room-temperature superconducting composite materials, an air-train with 10 carriages will need 70 tons of room-temperature superconducting composite materials. Xiao Yu currently quotes a price of 8 million yuan for this material, which is equal to the price of an air-train with 10 carriages. The expenditure on room-temperature superconducting materials alone is an astronomical figure of 560 billion yuan.

Such an exaggerated cost is unsurprisingly unaffordable. Relatively speaking, laying magnetic tracks is extremely cheap, and that includes the electricity costs of the magnetic tracks.

Of course, if the skytrain carriage is designed with superconducting suspension, the overall weight will definitely be greatly reduced, and more lightweight materials will be used to reduce the overall weight of the carriage. This is also an important means of reducing costs, and the use of aviation materials will seem cost-effective.

The cost of laying magnetic tracks is roughly the same as that of current maglev train tracks, at around 3 million yuan per kilometer, while the cost of subways is even more expensive, ranging from 5 million to 10 billion yuan per kilometer.

However, if commuting efficiency is improved, the cost can be lower than that of the current maglev train. For example, if you want to add a superconducting sky-rail train on the same route, you don't need to lay additional magnetic tracks. Instead, you only need to add a height surface above the magnetic track, or increase the magnetic field strength by consuming a little more electricity.

For example, now we are running superconducting skyrail within a height of 10 meters. If the commuting pressure is still very high, then another skyrail route will be opened in the low-altitude airspace of 10 to 20 meters, but the laid ground magnetic track will remain unchanged.

In other words, commuting efficiency has doubled, while the laying cost remains unchanged. A simple calculation shows that the cost per kilometer has dropped from 3 million yuan to 1.5 million yuan. If a third skyrail line is opened in the low-altitude airspace of 20 to 30 meters, the cost will be further reduced to 1 million yuan per kilometer.

Obviously, this "one track for multiple uses" is a cost-reduction and efficiency-enhancing advantage that traditional maglev trains cannot match, and it is even more unmatched by subways. If the subway wants to add tracks, it can only honestly dig more tunnels.

Moreover, the ground magnetic track does not require the use of additional land. The current width of some core trunk roads in Linzhou City is sufficient. There is no need for large-scale demolition and road expansion. It is only necessary to make some fine adjustments to the existing trunk roads and utilize the existing green belts in the middle of the road.

At this moment, Xiao Yu looked around at the leaders present and said in an orderly manner: "My idea is to dig up the existing green belt of the main road in Linzhou City, lay a layer of ground magnetic track, and then restore the green belt. The sky train will run over the green belt, which will not affect the driving of vehicles on the main roads on both sides, will not affect the appearance of the city, and will not require large-scale demolition and no additional land occupation."

The leaders present found the proposal refreshing, but since they were not professional technicians, they were skeptical.

A leader at the meeting thought for a while after hearing this. He looked at Xiao Yu and asked, "What I am most concerned about is safety. If a car accident occurs on the roads on both sides of the green belt, for example, a vehicle hits the green belt and the floating train happens to pass through this section of road, will it be affected and cause the floating train to fall? This is a serious accident."

Everyone nodded when they heard this. If the sky train crashed, it would be an extremely serious car accident.

Hearing this, Xiao Yu smiled and said, "Don't worry about this at all. The magnetic track is laid under the green belt. The green belt itself is equivalent to a buffer protection for the magnetic track. Even if the vehicles on both sides of the ground road hit the green belt, it will not affect the operation of the floating train in the air."

Xiao Yu went on to say: "In fact, even if the magnetic track is laid under the main road, and a normal cement road is laid on top of the magnetic track, it is no problem for vehicles to drive on it. However, in order to save costs, the amount of room temperature superconducting materials used is reduced, resulting in the suspension height of the levitating train cannot be too high, and the strength of the artificial magnetic field must also be controlled, and the strength cannot affect the human body."

"If the height is not high enough, if the skytrain is traveling over the main road, and the skytrain and ground vehicles are traveling face to face, it will cause huge psychological pressure on the drivers of the ground, and even the drivers of the vehicles will subconsciously change lanes to avoid risks, which will increase the accident rate of ground vehicles. The choice of traveling over the middle green belt is to avoid this kind of thing from happening."

To achieve stable levitation while keeping the overall load of the carriage unchanged, it is necessary either to increase the proportion of room-temperature superconducting composite materials or to increase the strength of the electromagnetic field through magnetic rails.

The purpose of laying ground magnetic tracks is to reduce the amount of room-temperature superconducting materials used, and to compensate for this by enhancing the magnetic field through the magnetic tracks, thereby allowing the carriages to float and travel.

However, there is an upper limit to the increase in magnetic field strength, which is the lower limit of the impact on the human body, and it cannot harm human health. If these two requirements are met at the same time, then the floating height of the air train will be limited, and it will not be able to achieve the exaggerated height of thousands of meters in the blue star world.

This involves some physical laws. The strength of the magnetic field is inversely proportional to the distance, that is, it decays cubically as the distance increases.

In other words, the higher the height of the skytrain, the greater the distance from the ground magnetic track, and the magnetic field strength will decay rapidly with the increase in distance, making it difficult to support the skytrain carriages floating in the air. The floating height of the skytrain will not exceed thirty meters vertically above the ground.

If the height exceeds this and a stable floating state is desired, the only option is to increase the proportion of room-temperature superconducting materials without increasing the magnetic field strength.

However, a vertical height of 30 meters is definitely enough to meet current needs, and three vertical floating lanes can be opened up.

If such a vertical height is laid on the lane, it will definitely cause a huge sense of oppression and psychological pressure on the drivers of ground vehicles. Therefore, it cannot be laid above the main road of the lane, but should be staggered with the ground lane to reduce the psychological pressure on the ground vehicle drivers.

Laying magnetic tracks in green belts is currently the most economical and appropriate option.

At this time, a leader couldn't help but ask: "How do people get on and off the bus?"

Hearing this, Xiao Yu smiled and explained: "This is even simpler. For example, for an overpass that crosses the road, set up an entrance and exit that crosses the road at each station. People enter and exit the station from the sidewalks on both sides of the road, which is equivalent to turning the overpass into an air-rail substation. The vehicles below can pass normally on the road without affecting each other, and the air-rail trains enter the station in the middle to pick up passengers."

When everyone heard this, they all nodded in sudden understanding.

Xiao Yu added: "As for these import and export sub-stations distributed on the main roads of the city, we can leave it to professional architects to design buildings that conform to the city's aesthetics."

The city's top leader looked at Xiao Yuru and said, "No matter how much the cost is reduced, it will probably still be higher than the subway, right?"

Xiao Yu nodded and said frankly: "Indeed, it is probably about 1.5 to 2 times that of the subway."

The leaders present at the meeting were slightly surprised when they heard this, and one of them couldn't help but say, "It's still a bit expensive."

Xiao Yu smiled and said, "It is indeed a bit expensive, but our Linzhou City's current financial foundation can support it. The key is that we dare to be the first in the world. It will become a postcard of Linzhou City and greatly help to enhance the city's reputation."

After a pause, Xiao Yu said: "From a global perspective, it can drive the vigorous development of the low-altitude economy, allowing Linzhou City to be ahead of everyone else and become a unique science fiction-level city in the world."

Everyone nodded secretly. If it was done well, it would definitely be a very outstanding political achievement and everyone would be able to make progress.

……

(End of this chapter)