SkyTran - Track Fabrication and Placement Automation
When we started getting contracts to erect SkyTran systems in other cities we decided to automate the track fabrication, placement and installation. Our big new machines would roll form track continuously from raw coil stock on location, up in the air - attaching it to the support poles as it drove slowly along at .06 mph (1 foot every 10 seconds). Once all the support poles and cross braces were installed and laser aligned, we found that with two TRACK FORMER machines and 16 hour a day operations we could complete one mile of main two-way freeway track per day!
Fig. 9. On site semi-automated track fabrication robot. (Artwork courtesy of Larry Wood)
SkyTran - Vehicle Mass Production Costs
The original 28 mile system for the County with its one half second spacing between SkyTran vehicles traveling at 100 mph required 72 vehicles per mile in both directions plus another 5 vehicles in dwell at each of 50 stations in both directions or a total of 4,548 vehicles. With a 10% fleet contingency this brought the total to 5,000 two-seat vehicles. This immediately forced us to think mass production. This was not going to be a company making four train sets per year at a million or two dollars per 100-passenger train car!The automated factory, sophisticated vehicle electronic controls and software development costs were not insignificant, but it enabled reproduction costs in high volume to be quite low - just like calculators, VCR's, CD's and Cell phones. We eventually got the cost down to just $3,000 per vehicle.
That’s a pretty good trick grandpa, when you consider that the cheapest automobiles of the era were selling for $13,000. How’d you do it?
First of all, Kim, SkyTran, Inc. built and operated all the system vehicles. We were not selling them to the public through dealers. Therefore, we did not need a dealer network with fancy sales offices and sales people, nor expensive TV and print advertising. The $13,000 price of a car was a marked up price, needed so dealers could pay employees salaries; pay the salesmen some commission; pay the rent, phone and electric bills; pay for all those local classified ads AND hopefully make a reasonable profit and survive to the next month. If the typical markup was 20%, that meant we were already down to a $10,400 price to a dealer. If the auto manufacturer only made 5% profit on each car it sold to the dealer then we are down to $9,880. The difference was already $3,120, which was almost a third of the $10,000 targeted cost reduction.
Now the real fun began! We could toss out everything that was an essential part of an automobile, but was totally unnecessary in a MagLev SkyTran. Keep in mind that both the costs to manufacture each part plus the labor costs to install each part and the subsequent costs to check out each assembly would be totally eliminated!
A SkyTran vehicle didn't need: a steering wheel, shift levers, throttle or brake pedals; assorted linkages and bearings; rear view mirrors; an internal combustion motor, transmission, drive shafts and differential; tail pipes, mufflers and catalytic converters; fuel, water temperature and speedometer/odometer gages; tires, wheel rims, suspension structures, shock absorbers and a spare tire; a separate trunk or glove box with hinges and locks; three extra doors with roll down windows, latches and locks; head lights and brake lights; or adjustable power seats.
Can you say that three times fast, grandpa?
Well, Michelle, I was just trying to make a point and see if I could still remember all those old fashioned gadgets. My goodness but those old cars were complex. Most importantly though, we no longer needed 2,900 pounds of processed and manufactured materials (from the typical 3,100 pound car). One important issue was - could we still be eligible for any recycling awards if we simply eliminated a ton and a half of assorted raw materials in the first place?
The power train of a SkyTran vehicle was extremely simple in comparison to the hundreds of moving, wearing components used in the year 2018 automobile's internal combustion engine and drive train. A MagLev linear electric motor driven system only had one moving part - the vehicle itself. There was no contact at speed and thus no mechanical friction to deal with. That meant an almost unlimited useful life.
Because many people would use each SkyTran vehicle over and over each day, the cost of building each SkyTran could be recovered very quickly by virtue of its high percentage time in service. Private automobiles, on the other hand, spent most of their economic life depreciating in parking lots and garages. That life was extended greatly because SkyTran enabled car owners to reserve the expensive family car for trips involving moving 3 or more, or to haul large goods solo (weekly groceries, etc).
