Aerotrain is like an airplane, Or the Russian Ekranoplan of Amtrak’s average locomotive. It used a flying principle known as “ground effect” to glide mainly through the air. When an object flies very close to the ground at a high enough speed, air collects below the craft and pushes upwards, providing a limited amount of lift. After a series of small-scale models, the Aerotrain’s full-size two-liter prototype looked a bit like a bus with a fan in the back integrated with Disney’s monorail. It reportedly managed to reach 214 mph in 1966 on an elevated stretch of track. The propeller was abandoned in favor of a turboprop. With the new engine, it can reach 262 mph, slightly faster than the Rimac Electric Superhero Nefer.
Tests have proven that the concept is viable and can work. But as with many large public works projects, a fair amount of politics was involved. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing became President of France in 1974 and oversaw the project’s cancellation in favor of France’s other high-speed railway project, the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse or “high-speed train” in French), a series of electric trains that still operate today. It travels at about 198 miles per hour.
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