Personalized Maglev Transit

Section 5. "Goodnight - March 31, 2052" 
                 
A Technological Story of the Future of Transportation through the Year 2052

An Invited Predictive Paper prepared for the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers
(Original uncensored edition)
by
Douglas J. Malewicki
President/Chief Scientist
AeroVisions, Inc.
©1999
Email: DMalewicki@CanoSOARus.com   - Doug's Invention Web Site is: www.CanoSOARus.com

BACKGROUND
On October 29, 1998 I received an EMail from Jim Calder, the managing editor of the IEEE as follows:

"Dear Doug Malewicki:  Today, I am contacting you to invite you to serve as a Special Guest Author for the PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE and write a brief Companion Predictive Essay as an introduction to a 1962 Predictive paper entitled: "Communications as an Alternative to Travel," authored by John R. Pierce, who was the VP and Technical Director of ITT in 1962, when this paper was written. We believe that it might be appropriate to include some information on the potentialities of "solid state travel" and the People Pods concepts in this look into the future.  (This approach is based on the idea that while communications has been revolutionary-there is more travel as well as more cars on the road-and perhaps it is time to re-vitalize and re-engineer our concepts of public transportation systems.)
The Pierce paper was originally published as part of the 50th Jubilee Year Celebration of the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers) in 1962."

I called Jim to discuss what he had on his mind for the paper.  I told him that writing about the future could be a lot of fun and as long as he would let me include some wild though technically feasible ideas, I would be happy to put in the work.  Some time later I sent him a first draft and Jim responded with a request for even more pages.  Happy to comply.  Then after the final draft was turned in, the IEEE sent me back an edited down version that "lost it"as far I was concerned.  Jim, blamed the removal of all my fun, bizarre stuff on the "powers that be".  So now the actual IEEE Proceedings paper is just another boring Ph.D.-like diatribe. 

In retaliation, here is the original fun version.  All the crazy, though technically feasible, stuff in the beginning has a purpose!  It specifically steers people into thinking about solving everyone's personal problem of "how can I minimize my commuting time?".  I purposely did not want a paper that discussed an "improved mass transportation system concept" because that is quite secondary to what SkyTran is about.  This uncensored version is designed to give the reader insight into the thinking processes that integrate numerous unrelated inventions and technologies into something new and useful for all.  SkyTran will make more sense to you after reading this paper. 

BTW, I couldn't stop laughing when I first saw one special picture that my talented artist friend, Steve Crompton of Scottsdale, Arizona, created.  It is of me in my ultra-senior prime at age 113 in the year 2052!  It was done to point out that by then there will be many unexpected technological advancements in ALL  fields of creative endeavor -  not just transportation! You get to see it here on the web - the poor IEEE Proceedings readers will never know the laughs they missed.  Enjoy!

Doug Malewicki March 22, 1999                                                                                           

The sections below are active links to go right to any desired section.  Alternatively you can read each page sequentially like a printed book by clicking on the continue button at the bottom of each page. 

2052 TABLE of CONTENTS

Goodnight - March 31, 2052
Joy in the Car Pool Lane Lanes
The Transformer
IVHS
The MINIMACAR™
The TCUP™
SkyTran™- The Beginning
SkyTran - Non-stop 100 mph Travel
SkyTran - Personal/Mass Transportation
SkyTran - Low Cost Stations for Efficient Passenger Handling
SkyTran - Enhanced Safety
SkyTran - First Implementation
SkyTran - Cashless Transactions
SkyTran, Inc. - The Company Expands
SkyTran - Congested Downtown Station Placement
SkyTran - Track Fabrication and Placement Automation
SkyTran - Vehicle Mass Production Costs
SkyTran - Progress
SkyTran - Failsafe Operations
SkyTran - High Capacity, Non-Polluting, National Park Access
SkyTran - Amusement Park Access and Rides
SkyTran - To the Moon!

Click here to download a color PDF file of this uncensored paper (2.3 megabytes) that you can print out and share with your friends.

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