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Determination of the fastest rail vehicle in the world varies depending on the definition of "rail".
Contents
- World speed records
- All passenger trains
- Conventional wheeled
- Conventional wheeled — Narrow gauge
- Maglev trains
- Rocket sleds
- World fastest point-to-point average speeds in commercial operations
- All Trains Commercially Operated
- See also
- References
- External links
The world record for conventional wheeled passenger trains is held by France's specially tuned TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse). Reduced to three cars, it broke the world record in April 2007, reaching 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on a 140 km section of track. [1]
The TGV is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by the SNCF, the state-owned national rail operator. The SNCF started working on a high-speed rail network in 1966 and later presented the project to President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing who approved it. Originally designed as turbotrains to be powered by gas turbines, TGV prototypes evolved into electric trains with the 1973 oil crisis. In 1976 the SNCF ordered 87 high-speed trains from GEC-Alstom. Following the inaugural service between Paris and Lyon in 1981 on the LGV Sud-Est, the network, centered on Paris, has expanded to connect major cities across France and in neighbouring countries on a combination of high-speed and conventional lines. The TGV network in France carries about 110 million passengers a year.
The maximum speed attained by a passenger train is held by Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series, having achieved 603 km/h (375 mph) on a 42.8 km magnetic-levitation track in April 2015. [2]
Maglev is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of magnets, one set to repel and push the train up off the track, then another set to move the 'floating train' ahead at great speed taking advantage of the lack of friction. Along certain "medium range" routes Maglev can compete favorably with high-speed rail and airplanes.
The L0 Series is a high-speed maglev train that the Central Japan Railway Company is developing and testing. JR Central plans to use the L0 series on the Chūō Shinkansen railway line between Tokyo and Osaka, which is under construction.
Magnetic levitation, maglev, or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational acceleration and any other accelerations.
The fastest manned rail vehicle was a manned rocket sled, which carried United States Air Force flight surgeon Colonel John Stapp at 1,017 km/h (632 mph).
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer practicing in the clinical field of aviation medicine. Although the term "flight surgery" is considered improper by purists, it may occasionally be encountered.
Colonel John Paul Stapp, M.D., Ph.D., was an American career U.S. Air Force officer, flight surgeon, physician, biophysicist, and pioneer in studying the effects of acceleration and deceleration forces on humans. He was a colleague and contemporary of Chuck Yeager, and became known as "the fastest man on earth". His work on Project Manhigh pioneered many developments for the US space program.
Unmanned rocket sleds that ride on rails have reached over 10,400 km/h (6,460 mph), equivalent to Mach 8.5. [3]
A rocket sled is a test platform that slides along a set of rails, propelled by rockets.
In fluid dynamics, the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound.
