California-based company skyTran is teaming up with Israel Aerospace Industries for the world’s first public pilot of its elevated transit network. The deal was signed last month by IAI’s Lahav Division director Yosef Melamed and skyTran CEO Jerry Sanders.
First developed as a concept in 1990 by Douglas Malewicki, skyTran is a system of elevated, automated transportation pods, designed to alleviate road congestion and increase fuel efficiency. It is lightweight and travels along the underside of an elevated track, called a guideway, using magnetic levitation (maglev) technology. It has very few moving parts and is considered solid-state.
The Tel Aviv project is intended to be operational by 2016 and will consist of about 500 meters of track across the Tel Aviv campus of IAI. If that project is successful, a commercial version will be built in the city.
According to Sanders, the two-person pods in the IAI pilot will travel at speeds of 70 km (about 43 miles) per hour, but the commercial version will hit 240 km (almost 150 miles) per hour.
“Tel Aviv is a world city. It’s a destination for people around the world. A center of commerce. Israelis love technology and we don’t foresee a problem of people not wanting to use the system. Israel is a perfect test site,” Sanders told Reuters news agency.
The entire skyTran system would be automated. Passengers would order a vehicle using their smartphones, and it would arrive at the nearest station to take them directly to their destination. Tickets would cost about $5 per passenger.
“It can handle 12,000 people an hour per guideway, and that number grows exponentially with each additional guideway,” Sanders said. “That is more than a light rail and equal to three lanes of highway.”
Construction of the system’s components will begin at the company’s California headquarters at the NASA Research Park and be completed locally in Tel Aviv.
“The support afforded by IAI is a breakthrough for skyTran,” Sanders said. “IAI, as a world-class designer of aircraft and avionics, is the perfect partner to take skyTran from concept to construct.”
