Posts Tagged ‘transportation’

World’s Fastest Jet-Powered Plane

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

For over 40 years now since it first flew. SR-71 Blackbird still remains to be the fastest military jet-powered plane until now. The official record was Mach 3.3 but many believe that it can go faster than that from records. Although there is a handful attempts to break the record like X-43 of NASA’s experimental aircraft that failed and the mysterious Aurora spy plane that some claim to exist but unidentified until now while, the fastest commercial airline on record was the Tupolev Tu-144. The commercial airline was also used by NASA to design its so-called High Speed Civil Transport that was phased out in 1999 due to economic constrains.

Fastest Train in the World

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

France holds the record to have the fastest wheeled train in the world. France’s TGV (Train Grande Vitesse) reach the speed of 357.2 MPH. Running at around 31,000 volts on test conditions. However, the train only runs at 300 km/hr on normal condition which is still the highest speed for regular passenger service. When it comes to Maglev trains or magnetically levitating train, China’s Shanghai Transrapid maglev holds the highest speed record reaching 581 km/h or 361 mph. That’s approximately 11 hours travel from east to the west coast of the US. The train was manufactured by a Japanese firm. It uses electromagnetic force to suspend and guide the train.