MAGLEV TRAIN BOUND FOR ODU TAKES SHAPE IN FLORIDA

Maglev Train Bound For ODU Takes Shape In Florida

By DEBBIE MESSINA
The Virginian-Pilot
© March 10, 2002

The magnetic levitation train sits on the test
track for American Maglev Technology
Inc. in Edgewater, FL.

EDGEWATER, FLA. -- Off Cow Creek Road, among snakes, frogs and wooded swampland, a team of engineers has defied gravity. They've floated a 23,000-pound vehicle nearly a half-inch in the air.

No smoke. No mirrors.

Just magnets.

They're developing the nation's first magnetic levitation train, and if they pull it off, they will make history in a few months when the train glides along an elevated track through the campus of Old Dominion University.

A modest, isolated test track in rural Florida is the humble birthplace of a new technology that, if successful, could revolutionize mass transportation. Magnets and electricity combine to lift and propel a train along a guideway.

In just nine months and with $14 million, American Maglev Technology Inc., Lockheed Martin and Dominion Virginia Power have been able to do what hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money and years of studies have not -- produce a working maglev vehicle.

But they're not done yet.

While the levitation system looks good, bugs remain in other areas.

That's the nature of invention. You try it. You tweak it. You try it again.

Last May, project engineers started with almost nothing -- no track, no vehicle. The test site was so barren that they used a leaf blower to shoo away dozens of baby frogs each morning before starting work.

But they had good ideas, information from a less sophisticated trial in 1994, and an overwhelming desire create something that no one else has.

"This is the kind of thing engineers dream about.... starting something from the ground floor," said Thomas V. Radovich, director of adjacent markets for Lockheed Martin in Orlando.

Today, a sleek, totally automated blue and white car lifts in the air with a few computer keystrokes and moves a hundred feet along a straight aluminum and steel track through a thick of palm and pine trees.

"The progress has been truly remarkable," Radovich said. "The key technical elements have been met, but the engineering still needs to go on."

The crew needs to extend the track for more thorough testing, make the ride smoother and quieter, and integrate all the train's systems -- the levitation, the thrust, the starting, the stopping.

They are a few months behind schedule, but still hope to move the vehicle to ODU sometime next month for further testing before its scheduled Sept. 1 launch.

"I have to admit, it's impressive they got to this point so quickly, especially since they started from scratch," said John T. Harding, chief maglev scientist for the Federal Railroad Administration, who has been skeptical of the project since it was first announced.

Harding, who visited the site earlier this year, is still not sold. He noted that the vehicle wasn't delivered to ODU around the first of the year, as earlier promised.

"I'm not too surprised they're running into unexpected problems," he said. "It's not an easy technology to get going."

American Maglev insists the train will work and will be ready on time.

"We have our issues to deal with," said company president and CEO Tony Morris. "The details were never what we expected, but the process is exactly what we expected.... It's an interesting puzzle."

Virginia's highway commissioner, Ray D. Pethtel, who secured a $7 million state transportation loan for the project, is convinced.

"If Lockheed Martin can put people on the moon," he said, "I have no doubt they can levitate them a quarter of an inch and move them down a rail track."

It may not be rocket science, but rocket scientists are toiling side-by-side with concrete workers and welders on the project.

"This is the most significant work of my career," said John Hughes, a 22-year Lockheed Martin engineer.

He gazed toward the train and said, a quiver in his voice, "That thing amazes me."

Hughes is adding another patent to his collection of 12 for the control system he developed that lifts and stabilizes the train. Among Hughes' other inventions is the stabilizing system that helps aviators zero in on something the size of a golf ball from many miles miles in the air.

"Because of what we're doing here, it's going to be the start of a huge new industry," he said. "This is the group of guys who figured it out and put it together."

The genius of the system is in the 12 200-pound magnets, the 16 computers and the linear induction motor similar to those used on roller coasters -- all contained within the car.

Using a surge of electricity equal to the power of running about 20 hair dryers, the magnets levitate the car, the motor propels it and the computers control it.

There are no wheels, no moving parts, no friction. That keeps the maintenance and operating costs low while allowing higher speeds than conventional trains.

Project engineers liken the movement to flying. The car -- its controls, its aerodynamics -- is more like an airplane than a train.

"Instead of flying hundreds of feet above the ground, it's flying tenths of inches above the ground," Radovich said.

When levitated, the train hovers from one quarter-inch to a half-inch above the track.

"When you see thing pick up, you feel like you're cheating the laws of nature," said Chip Williams, of Williams Consulting, who is working on the train's computer systems.

As with any invention process, there are highs and lows.

"Some days, science will be triumphing," said Phil Mealo, a retired Lockheed Martin systems engineer who is developed satellite navigation systems. "Some days, witchcraft and sorcery will be triumphing."

Something as simple as a disconnected cable has sent engineers scrambling for two hours.

Among the latest challenges is stopping the vehicle at a designated mark. It's particularly tough when there's no friction.

"We need the vehicle to stop on a dime, in front of the doors at the station so there's a perfect portal for someone to go through,'' Morris said.

The kinks are worked out by turning screws, rewriting computer programs or hashing it out in the "war room," a conference room in the trailer that serves as American Maglev's home.

The room is where bad ideas go to die, Morris said. A mathematical matrix fills one display board. A list of tasks is on another. Artist renderings of the next generation of maglev trains are taped to the walls.

The focus of many discussions, though, is how to save money.

Whenever possible, components are purchased off-the-shelf, then retrofitted because custom work is too expensive.

For example, the shell of the maglev vehicle is an old train car bought from the city of Tampa. Instruments were stripped from a bogie, or chassis, tested throughout the fall and reused on the train when it arrived.

"When you're poor,'' Morris said, "you integrate everything and don't waste anything."

It started with an idea a dozen years ago from Morris, an entrepreneur who envisioned a less expensive, more efficient maglev system than the Germans and Japanese were experimenting with.

Unlike most of those efforts, Morris put the "brains" of the system in the train cars rather than in the tracks, and he reduced the weight of the car.

"Smart car, dumb guideway" is Morris' mantra.

As a result, he says, his system can be built for $15 million to $20 million a mile, compared with his competitors' $40 million to $100 million a mile.

For years, the German and Japanese designs were considered too expensive to build as public transportation.

But refinements have been made, and just last year, China started construction of a commercial maglev train to Shanghai's new airport using the German technology. Last month, the German government agreed to fund about half the cost of two maglev projects in their country.

There's one big difference between the systems, though. The foreign designs have run at speeds of more than 250 mph, whereas Morris' train will move at lower speeds, about 40 mph on the ODU track.

Morris maintains that his design is capable of higher speeds; he just doesn't have the backing and funding to prove it yet.

In 1994, American Maglev built a stripped-down chassis and ran it along the same stretch of abandoned railway bed in Edgewater.

It was a crude version, but it worked.

Lockheed Martin -- the maker of F-16 and F-22 fighter jets, Patriot missiles and Titan rockets -- was intrigued enough kick in some money and to loan a few of its people to the project.

Dominion Virginia Power saw potential in the electrically powered vehicle and also signed on.

Then, the trio needed a project and some money. After a number of fits and starts, they partnered with ODU and the Commonwealth to develop a people-mover for the university's students and faculty.

Lockheed Martin and Dominion are each contributing $3.5 million and their expertise. The Commonwealth Transportation Board granted a $7 million loan, which is to be repaid with revenue from future American Maglev projects.

ODU is providing the site, as well as help from its faculty and staff.

The elevated track is already in place. Its 3,200-foot route bisects the campus, connecting dormitories, academic buildings and student activity centers, including the new Constant Convocation Center under construction.

The 45-foot car, which is slightly larger than a city bus, will carry 100 students and will cover the route in three to five minutes. There are no seats, just poles to hang onto while standing and a bench at either end.

Anticipation is building in Edgewater.

American Maglev is fielding inquiries from casinos, airports and other universities. It's getting a steady stream of visitors -- a far cry from the audience of frogs and snakes less than a year ago.

A delegation of Virginia legislators and transportation officials, including Pethtel and transportation secretary Whittington W. Clement, plan a trip to the site this week.

Recently, the team showed off its technology to a group of Florida dignitaries by levitating the car. Although some of the visitors were disappointed they didn't see the train move, the demonstration still caused a stir.

As the train hummed and lifted off the track, Florida congressman John L. Mica pushed the vehicle back and forth with his fingers while giddy officials climbed aboard and bounced around.

"Twenty-three thousand pounds with my thumb," said Mica, mugging for the cameras.

Backing away from the crowd, Morris sported a wide grin. "What a card trick," he said.

Reach Debbie Messina at dmessina@pilotonline.com or 446-2588.