Rocket-Powered 'Aerotrain'
Extraordinary-looking French invention from the 1960s
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5. metataggers 1 year ago
The new French Bullet trains hit 200mph and someone walks down the aisle with salami sandwiches.
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@hellsd France abandoned this project to further promote the TGV, which is the French high-speed trains. They started operating in 1973 with a speed of 318 km/h while transporting about 350 people.
Today, TGVs have the record of the fastest on rail trains in the world with a blistering 380km/h. This is the same speed this Aerotrain got for two people only and with a rocket engine. The TGV on the other hand, is almost 100% ecological because it's powered by electricity which is generated in France (by 85%) by (clean) nuclear power.
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7. Comment rated too low. Show this comment MakeTnotWar 1 year ago
#6 don't you watch the news? Nuclear Power is far from being clean. Google "Tchernobyl" (25 years and still glowing hooray!) or "Fukushima"
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While France was experimenting with this... this is the best Britain produced 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvBgfzsDIHo
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#7 France is neither on the edge of a tectonic plate, nor run by Soviet jurisdiction with poor plant designs. Yes, it is clean.
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Aerotrain was abandoned, but they continued to use a part of the rail to test the engines of the mythic plane called Concorde
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#8 It's clean as long as you don't think of disposing of the waste. And it does not go up your face.
@our French neighbors (who don't speak English anyway): Take a look to the east. We Germans are going to shut down our nuclear plants (at least everyone is talking about it, because its popular right now)
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#11 #12, I don't think that resource consuming solar panels, landscape butchering wind power or fossil energy are better, and nuclear wastes in france represent only a few hundreds kilos per plant each year so not that hard to handle (and reusable with the EPR), while chemical pollution is a real issue since it isn't as controlled as radioactive wastes. 
#12 I assure you a few of us can speak English (but not thanks to our english teachers 
)
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16. petermacaloai 1 year ago
#12 @ our german neighbourg
Shutting down your nuclear plants and using the green power will make you buy even more electricity from other countries, France is one of the biggest producer so one way or the other you'll get power from nuclear sources.
PS Hey ! I'm french, didn't I wrote in english !?! :-) ;-)
(106 votes)
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1. Koolxxx 1 year ago
France definitely made the right choice by having the world's fastest traditional train, and super-efficient rail network, rather than wasting money on this cool but mind-blindingly impractical design.