ET3 Global Alliance is an American open
consortium
A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...
of licensees that has tried to implement the Evacuated Tube Transport (ET3). It was founded by Daryl Oster in 1997.
The stated goal of the consortium was to build a global transportation system using car-sized capsules traveling in 1.5-meter-diameter tubes via frictionless
superconductive maglev
Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance.
Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...
. Oster claims that the ET3 system will cost only 20 cents' worth of electrical energy to get up to 350 mph (560 km/h). ET3 claims that initial systems would travel at the speed of for in-state trips and later will be developed to 6,500 km/h (4,000 mph,
hypersonic speed
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds five times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above.
The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since i ...
).
History
Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) became the first university institution to become licensees of the ET3 GA consortium. Most ET3 licensees held outside of the United States are held in China. By 2007, Yaoping Zhang, a former professor of SWJTU, began promoting ETT as "evolutionary transportation". Yaoping Zhang currently operates ET3 GA's subsidiary ET3 China Inc.
ET3 has filed a series of new patents in 2014 relating to the field of
high-temperature superconductivity
High-temperature superconductivity (high-c or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high- ...
(HTS). As of 2016, more than 380 licenses have been sold in 22 different countries, including China, where ET3 claims that more than a dozen licenses have been sold.
Daryl Oster and his team met with
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...
in late July 2013 to discuss the technology,
resulting in Musk promising an investment in a prototype of ET3's design.
See also
*
Hyperloop
Hyperloop is a proposed high-speed transportation system for both passengers and freight. The concept was published by entrepreneur Elon Musk in a 2013 white paper, where the hyperloop was described as a transportation system using capsules supp ...
*
Swissmetro, a project started in 1974
*
Vactrain, first proposed 1914
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official website
Hypothetical technology
Sustainable transport
Transport systems
American companies established in 1997