164-403: A hovertrain is a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, and the conventional railway bed with a paved road-like surface, known as the track or guideway . The concept aims to eliminate rolling resistance and allow very high performance, while also simplifying the infrastructure needed to lay new lines. Hovertrain is a generic term, and
328-496: A Fouga Magister , which powered it to 345 km/h (214 mph) on 1 November 1967. Several newer prototypes of ever-larger size followed, culminating in the I-80, a 44-seat vehicle powered by two turboshaft engines driving a single shrouded propeller. An 18 km (11 mi) long test track outside of Chevilly was built to test it, where it arrived on 10 September 1969. Two days later it reached 200 km/h (120 mph), and
492-611: A "vote of confidence" because of the pro-business climate being fostered in part by President-elect Donald Trump , Ford had canceled plans to invest $ 1.6 billion in a new plant in Mexico to manufacture the Ford Focus ; instead, the company would invest $ 700 million in Michigan , which it planned to use to create 700 new jobs. The Focus would now be manufactured in the existing plant in Mexico. Also in 2017, Ford began development of
656-503: A $ 2.7 billion profit in fiscal year 2009, the company's first full-year profit in four years. In 2012, Ford's corporate bonds were upgraded from junk to investment grade again, citing sustainable, lasting improvements. On October 29, 2012, Ford announced the sale of its climate control components business, its last remaining automotive components operation, to Detroit Thermal Systems LLC for an undisclosed price. On November 1, 2012, Ford announced that CEO Alan Mulally would stay with
820-521: A 20 mph (32 km/h) headwind. In spite of this success, two weeks later the government cancelled further funding. A combination of the total lack of interest on BR's part, and infighting between the various high-speed efforts, prompted the formation of an independent review board that heavily favored APT. The test track was later removed and RTV 31 ended up in the Peterborough Railworld Wildlife Haven where it
984-560: A 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) gas turbine generator to supply the LIM with electricity. The test track for the LIMRV at the HSGTC near Pueblo wasn't yet complete when Garrett delivered the vehicle: the reaction rail in the middle of the tracks was still being installed. Once the track was ready, linear induction motor, vehicle power systems, and rail dynamics testing progressed and by October 1972,
1148-685: A 32% stake in China's Jiangling Motors . The Henry Ford Company was Henry Ford's first attempt at a car manufacturing company and was established on November 3, 1901. This became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902, after Ford left with the rights to his name. In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory, with $ 28,000, equivalent to $ 950,000 in 2023, in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge , who later founded
1312-431: A 70 km/h (43 mph) crosswind, they predicted that their hovertrain would require 2,800 kW (3,750 hp) to overcome aerodynamic drag , a figure that compared favourably to any other form of ground transit. However, in order to provide lift, the vehicle would need to ingest air and accelerate it to vehicle speed before pumping it into the lift pads. This produced what they called "momentum drag", accounting for
1476-541: A Japanese project known as Aero-Train has been built to the extent of several prototypes and a test track. The basic concept is the same as the classic hovertrain, but replaces the active hovercraft system of pumps and lift pads with wings, using the efficient generation of lift from the wing-in-ground-effect . Launched in 2007, the Franco-Brazilian initiative Fultrace (an acronym for 'Fast ULtralight TRacked Air-Cushioned Equipment') has produced sketch designs for
1640-408: A carbody design that would reduce wind resistance at high speeds. A long series of tests was carried. In 1905, St. Louis Car Company built a railcar for the traction magnate Henry E. Huntington , capable of speeds approaching 160 km/h (100 mph). Once it ran 32 km (20 mi) between Los Angeles and Long Beach in 15 minutes, an average speed of 130 km/h (80 mph). However, it
1804-402: A decade the company led the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept, and Ford soon brought much of the part production in-house, via vertical integration . Henry Ford was 39 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which became one of the world's largest and most profitable companies. It has been in continuous family control for over 100 years, and is one of
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#17327809762081968-905: A driver that killed two men while using BlueCruise. In November 2024, Ford announced that it would cut 800 jobs in the UK and 2,900 in Germany to try and reduce costs. The key trends for the Ford Motor Company are (as of the financial year ending December 31): Members of the Ford board as of March 2023 are: William Clay Ford Jr. (executive chairman), Jim Farley (president and CEO), Kimberly Casiano , Alexandra Ford English (daughter of William Clay Ford Jr.), Henry Ford III (son of Edsel Ford II ), William W. Helman IV, Jon Huntsman Jr. , William E. Kennard , John C. May, Beth E. Mooney , John L. Thornton , John Veihmeyer , Lynn Vojvodich Radakovich, and John S. Weinberg. Jim Farley succeeded Jim Hackett as
2132-452: A form of instability known as " hunting oscillation " that forces the flanges on the sides of the wheels to hit the sides of the rails, as if they were rounding a tight bend. At speeds of 140 mph (230 km/h) or over, the frequency of these hits increased to the point where they became a major form of drag, dramatically increasing rolling resistance and potentially causing a derailment. That meant that for travel above some critical speed,
2296-651: A form of lubrication. This led to the Levapad concept, where compressed air was blown out of small metal disks, shaped much like a poppet valve . The Levapad required extremely flat surfaces to work on, either metal plates, or as originally intended, the very smooth concrete of a factory floor. Kucher eventually became VP in charge of the Ford Scientific Laboratory, continuing development of the Levapad concept throughout. It does not appear any effort
2460-490: A further 2,100 kW (2,800 hp). The combined 4,900 kW (6,600 hp) was not unheard of, existing freight locomotives of similar power were already in use. However, these locomotives weighed 80 tons, much of it constituted by the voltage control and conversion equipment, whereas the Tracked Hovercraft design was intended to be a very lightweight vehicle. THL's solution was to move this equipment to
2624-608: A high speed (200–350 km/h) inter-city system and a lower speed (50–120 km/h) "U-Trace" system for urban installations. A presentation of the system was made to the 2014 Maglev conference in Rio and in 2015 to government representatives of Brazil and Africa. The earliest examples of serious hovertrain proposals come, unsurprisingly, from Christopher Cockerell 's group, organized in Hythe, Hampshire as Hovercraft Development Ltd. As early as 1960 their engineers were experimenting with
2788-578: A high-speed railway network in Russian gauge . There are no narrow gauge high-speed railways. Countries whose legacy network is entirely or mostly of a different gauge than 1435mm – including Japan and Spain – have however often opted to build their high speed lines to standard gauge instead of the legacy railway gauge. High-speed rail is the fastest and most efficient ground-based method of commercial transportation. However, due to requirements for large track curves, gentle gradients and grade separated track
2952-458: A hot topic in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In this role their ability to float over small imperfections and debris on the "rails" was a practical advantage, although it competed with the maglev concept that had the same advantages. The only hovertain to see commercial service was the Otis Hovair system. Originally developed at General Motors as an automated guideway transit system, GM
3116-422: A hovercraft could be more efficient than a wheeled vehicle of the same weight. Better yet, such a vehicle would also retain all of the positive qualities of a hovercraft. Small imperfections in the surface would have no effect on the ride quality, so the complexity of the suspension system could be reduced. Additionally, since the load is spread out over the surface of the lifting pads, often the entire underside of
3280-427: A major energy use issue cropped up. Hovercraft generate lift by providing pressure , as opposed to generating lift due to the momentum of air flowing over an airfoil . The pressure of the air required is a function of the vehicle weight and the size of the lift pad, essentially a measure of overall vehicle density. A non-moving vehicle only loses this air due to leakage around the pads, which can be very low depending on
3444-401: A new form of high-speed land transportation, probably in the field of rail surface travel, for fast trips of distances of up to about 1,000 miles [1,600 km]". A 1960 Popular Mechanics article notes a number of different groups proposing a hovertrain concept. What was lacking from all of them was a suitable way to move the vehicles forward – since the whole idea of the hovertrain concept
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#17327809762083608-479: A new mixed-use urban campus in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit , with its purchase, renovation, and occupation of The Factory at Michigan and Rosa Parks. The new site was expected to have a major focus on the development of autonomous vehicle and electric vehicle technology. Ford later began buying up other parcels of land in Corktown including a very high-profile purchase of Michigan Central Station which
3772-546: A new top speed for a regular service, with a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). This train was a streamlined multi-powered unit, albeit diesel, and used Jakobs bogies . Following the success of the Hamburg line, the steam-powered Henschel-Wegmann Train was developed and introduced in June 1936 for service from Berlin to Dresden , with a regular top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). Incidentally no train service since
3936-479: A perfect fit for high speed transport, and built a model consisting of a chair mounted on a four-wheeled chassis on rails with a LIM rail running down the middle. After successful demonstrations, he convinced British Rail (BR) to invest in some experimental work using a LIM to power a train on rails using small lift pads similar to the Levipad system for suspension. As the various hovertrain systems were developing,
4100-443: A plan to return the company to profitability. Fields previewed the plan, named The Way Forward , at the board meeting of the company on December 7, 2005, and it was unveiled to the public on January 23, 2006. "The Way Forward" included resizing the company to match market realities, dropping some unprofitable and inefficient models, consolidating production lines, closing 14 factories and cutting 30,000 jobs. Ford moved to introduce
4264-508: A range of new vehicles, including " Crossover SUVs " built on unibody car platforms, rather than more body-on-frame chassis. In developing the hybrid electric powertrain technologies for the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, the company licensed similar Toyota hybrid technologies in order to avoid patent infringements. Ford announced that it would team up with electricity supply company Southern California Edison (SCE) to examine
4428-440: A result of high U.S. health care costs for an aging workforce , soaring gasoline prices, eroding market share, and an overdependence on declining SUV sales. Profit margins decreased on large vehicles due to increased "incentives" (in the form of rebates or low-interest financing) to offset declining demand. In the latter half of 2005, Chairman Bill Ford asked newly appointed Ford Americas Division President Mark Fields to develop
4592-491: A self-driving car startup. In May 2017, Ford announced cuts to its global workforce amid efforts to address the company's declining share price and to improve profits. The company is targeting $ 3 billion in cost reduction and a nearly 10% reduction in the salaried workforce in Asia and North America to enhance earnings in 2018. Jim Hackett was announced to replace Mark Fields as CEO of Ford Motor. Mr. Hackett most recently oversaw
4756-409: A separate vertical surface on top of it. The vehicle itself was now flatter and wider. This version was running in 1965 and shown publicly the next year at Hovershow '66 . A later modification would move the LIM rail from the top to the side of the guideway. At this point the project entered hiatus for lack of funding. During this same period, British Rail was working on an extensive study project that
4920-555: A some other interurban rail cars reached about 145 km/h (90 mph) in commercial traffic. The Red Devils weighed only 22 tons though they could seat 44 passengers. Extensive wind tunnel research – the first in the railway industry – was done before J. G. Brill in 1931 built the Bullet cars for Philadelphia and Western Railroad (P&W). They were capable of running at 148 km/h (92 mph). Some of them were almost 60 years in service. P&W's Norristown High Speed Line
5084-410: A speed of 187.9 mph (302.4 km/h) was achieved. Speed was limited due to the length of track (6.4 mi or 10.3 km) and vehicle acceleration rates. Two Pratt & Whitney J52 jet engines were added to the vehicle to propel the vehicle up to higher speeds, after acceleration the engines were then throttled back so that the thrust equaled their drag. On 14 August 1974, the LIMRV achieved
Hovertrain - Misplaced Pages Continue
5248-462: A standard deep-dish steering wheel, optional front, and, for the first time in a car, rear seatbelts, and an optional padded dash. Ford introduced child-proof door locks into its products in 1957, and, in the same year, offered the first retractable hardtop on a mass-produced six-seater car. In late 1955, Ford established the Continental division as a separate luxury car division. This division
5412-491: A ten-year building project. The result would see the number of Ford employees working in these areas doubling, to 24,000. During construction, some 2000 of the employees were relocated out of the campus to a temporary location in a disused section of the local shopping mall. Facilities would also be altered to allow ride-sharing and electric and self-driving vehicles. Estimates of the construction cost were $ 1.2 billion. On January 3, 2017, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced that in
5576-508: A train had been explored throughout the active period of the hovertrains. At first it was believed this would be impractical; if the system used electromagnets, the control systems that ensured even lift across the vehicle would be prohibitively expensive, and at the time there were no suitably powerful permanent magnets that would be able to lift a train. As electronics improved, and electrical control systems with them, it became increasingly easy to build an "active track" using electromagnets. By
5740-569: A world record for narrow gauge trains at 145 km/h (90 mph), giving the Odakyu engineers confidence they could safely and reliably build even faster trains at standard gauge. Conventional Japanese railways up until that point had largely been built in the 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ) Cape gauge , however widening the tracks to standard gauge ( 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in )) would make very high-speed rail much simpler due to improved stability of
5904-607: A world record speed of 255.7 mph (411.5 km/h) for vehicles on conventional rail. The second stage of the TACV project was a hovercraft testbed initially powered by turbofan engines, the Tracked Air Cushion Research Vehicle (TACRV). Boeing and Grumman proposed designs, with the Grumman vehicle being given the go-ahead. Grumman's TACRV was presented in 1972. Although Grumman's efforts got
6068-413: Is 129 km/h (80 mph). BlueCruise uses sensors and cameras to regulate the car's speed and to keep track of speed limits and road signs. It also monitors and keeps a safe distance from other vehicles. It also comes equipped with an eye-tracking system. If the driver stops looking at the road then the car will gradually reduce its speed. This technology will initially be offered in Ford's 2023 model of
6232-607: Is a driver safety program aimed at teens that were developed together with the Governors Highway Safety Association and safety experts. The Ford Volunteer Corps allows Ford employees and retirees to sign up for volunteering work on local projects in more than 40 countries. The organization invests $ 18 million annually in education in the United States and around the world, but accepts applications only from nonprofit organizations registered in
6396-476: Is a set of unique features, not merely a train travelling above a particular speed. Many conventionally hauled trains are able to reach 200 km/h (124 mph) in commercial service but are not considered to be high-speed trains. These include the French SNCF Intercités and German DB IC . The criterion of 200 km/h (124 mph) is selected for several reasons; above this speed,
6560-462: Is currently awaiting restoration. Jean Bertin was an early advocate of the hovercraft, and had built a series of multi-skirt transport vehicles for the French army known as the "Terraplane" in the early 1960s. In 1963, he showed a model of a vehicle similar to the early Hovercraft Development concepts to SNCF . Like BR, SNCF was actively exploring high-speed train service. The public demonstration of
6724-584: Is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines built to handle speeds above 250 km/h (155 mph) or upgraded lines in excess of 200 km/h (125 mph) are widely considered to be high-speed. The first high-speed rail system, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen , began operations in Honshu , Japan, in 1964. Due to the streamlined spitzer -shaped nose cone of the trains , the system also became known by its English nickname bullet train . Japan's example
Hovertrain - Misplaced Pages Continue
6888-632: Is not an option". Ford and the United Auto Workers , representing approximately 46,000 hourly workers in North America, agreed to a historic contract settlement in November 2007 giving the company a substantial break in terms of its ongoing retiree health care costs and other economic issues. The agreement included the establishment of a company-funded, independently run Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to shift
7052-507: Is planned to become the hub of their Corktown campus, and the adjacent Roosevelt Warehouse . Ford expects to move 2,500 of its employees, roughly 5 percent of its southeast Michigan workforce, to the campus with space for an additional 2,500 entrepreneurs, technology companies and partners. Bill Ford envisioned the first-floor concourse of the train station to be a public gathering place with retail outlets and restaurants. In February 2017, Ford Motor Co. acquired majority ownership of Argo AI ,
7216-539: Is still in use, almost 110 years after P&W in 1907 opened their double-track Upper Darby–Strafford line without a single grade crossing with roads or other railways. The entire line was governed by an absolute block signal system. On 15 May 1933, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft company introduced the diesel-powered " Fliegender Hamburger " in regular service between Hamburg and Berlin (286 km or 178 mi), thereby achieving
7380-406: Is that the air is at rest compared to the world, not the vehicle. In order to be used by the air pumps, it must first be brought up to vehicle speed. Similar effects occur with almost all high-speed vehicles: thus the reason for the large and complex air inlets on fighter aircraft , for instance, which slow the air down to speeds that their jet engines can ingest. In the case of a hovertrain design,
7544-465: Is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker, behind General Motors , and the sixth-largest in the world , behind Toyota , Volkswagen Group , Hyundai Motor Group , Stellantis , and General Motors, based on 2022 vehicle production. At the end of 2010, Ford was the fifth-largest automaker in Europe. The company went public in 1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares , retain 40 percent of
7708-480: Is to be rebranded as Ford Pro, to focus on vehicle distribution and service. In August 2022, Ford announced it planned layoffs of roughly 3,000 employees and contract workers, confirming earlier reporting. The cuts would mostly affect divisions in the US, Canada, and India, which Jim Farley said would allow the company to prepare for the future of electric, software-heavy vehicles. In February 2023, Ford announced that it
7872-571: The Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad project to reduce the running time between the two big cities to ten hours by using electric 160 km/h (99 mph) locomotives. After seven years of effort, however, less than 50 km (31 mi) of arrow-straight track was finished. A part of the line is still used as one of the last interurbans in the US. In the US, some of the interurbans (i.e. trams or streetcars which run from city to city) of
8036-553: The 0 Series Shinkansen , built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries – in English often called "Bullet Trains", after the original Japanese name Dangan Ressha ( 弾丸列車 ) – outclassed the earlier fast trains in commercial service. They traversed the 515 km (320 mi) distance in 3 hours 10 minutes, reaching a top speed of 210 km/h (130 mph) and sustaining an average speed of 162.8 km/h (101.2 mph) with stops at Nagoya and Kyoto. Speed
8200-681: The Aérotrain , a French hovercraft monorail train prototype, reached 200 km/h (120 mph) within days of operation. After the successful introduction of the Japanese Shinkansen in 1964, at 210 km/h (130 mph), the German demonstrations up to 200 km/h (120 mph) in 1965, and the proof-of-concept jet-powered Aérotrain , SNCF ran its fastest trains at 160 km/h (99 mph). In 1966, French Infrastructure Minister Edgard Pisani consulted engineers and gave
8364-692: The Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company . The first president was not Ford, but local banker John S. Gray , who was chosen in order to assuage investors' fears that Ford would leave the new company the way he had left its predecessor. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue and later at its factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit , Michigan . Groups of two or three men worked on each car, assembling it from parts made mostly by supplier companies contracting for Ford. Within
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#17327809762088528-537: The Ford Foundation ), based in Dearborn, Michigan, is the philanthropic arm of the Ford Motor Company. Established in 1949 by Henry Ford II , the organization is a nonprofit corporate foundation financed by contributions from Ford Motor Company. In 2017, it contributed $ 63 million to various causes with a focus on education, driving safely and community building. The Ford Driving Skills for Life program
8692-748: The Ford Transit and later the Ford Escort and the Ford Capri became common to both companies. In 1970, the Ford Taunus and the Ford Cortina came into production with a common base construction, both models being produced in left hand drive and right hand drive . Later on, the models became identical and the respective models right- and left-hand-drive exclusively. Rationalisation of model ranges meant that production of many models in
8856-590: The Marienfelde – Zossen line during 1902 and 1903 (see Experimental three-phase railcar ). On 23 October 1903, the S&;H-equipped railcar achieved a speed of 206.7 km/h (128.4 mph) and on 27 October the AEG-equipped railcar achieved 210.2 km/h (130.6 mph). These trains demonstrated the feasibility of electric high-speed rail; however, regularly scheduled electric high-speed rail travel
9020-647: The Morning Hiawatha service, hauled at 160 km/h (99 mph) by steam locomotives. In 1939, the largest railroad of the world, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced a duplex steam engine Class S1 , which was designed to be capable of hauling 1200 tons passenger trains at 161 km/h (100 mph). The S1 engine was assigned to power the popular all-coach overnight premier train the Trail Blazer between New York and Chicago since
9184-545: The Prussian state railway joined with ten electrical and engineering firms and electrified 72 km (45 mi) of military owned railway between Marienfelde and Zossen . The line used three-phase current at 10 kilovolts and 45 Hz . The Van der Zypen & Charlier company of Deutz, Cologne built two railcars, one fitted with electrical equipment from Siemens-Halske , the second with equipment from Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), that were tested on
9348-573: The Transit van continued at the company's Southampton facility until mid-2013, engines at Bridgend and Dagenham , and transmissions at Halewood . Development of European Ford is broadly split between Dunton in Essex (powertrain, Fiesta/Ka, and commercial vehicles) and Cologne (body, chassis, electrical, Focus, Mondeo) in Germany. Ford also produced the Thames range of commercial vehicles, although
9512-474: The World Bank , whilst supporting the project, considered the design of the equipment as unproven for that speed, and set the maximum speed to 210 km/h (130 mph). After initial feasibility tests, the plan was fast-tracked and construction of the first section of the line started on 20 April 1959. In 1963, on the new track, test runs hit a top speed of 256 km/h (159 mph). Five years after
9676-837: The industrialization of that country and consequently the Soviet war effort during World War II . To that end, in 1944, Stalin wrote a letter to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce stating that Henry Ford was "one of the world's greatest industrialists". During World War II, the United States Department of War picked Ford to mass-produce the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber at its Willow Run assembly plant. Ford Werke and Ford SAF , Ford's subsidiaries in Germany and France, respectively, produced military vehicles and other equipment for Nazi Germany 's war effort . Some of Ford's operations in Germany at
9840-664: The 1970s, manufactures the Transit Connect compact panel van as well as the "Jumbo" and long-wheelbase versions of the full-size Transit. This new production facility was set up near Kocaeli in 2002, and its opening marked the end of Transit assembly in Genk. Another joint venture plant near Setúbal in Portugal, set up in collaboration with Volkswagen , formerly assembled the Galaxy people-carrier as well as its sister ships,
10004-519: The APT and similar designs like the TGV , in practice this was offset by their need for entirely new lines. Conventional wheeled trains could run at low speed on existing lines, greatly reducing capital expenditures in urban areas. Interest in hovertrains waned, and major development had ended by the mid-1970s. Hovertrains were also developed for smaller systems, including personal rapid transit systems that were
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#173278097620810168-544: The Detroit United Auto Workers union announced that after discussion with the leaders of General Motors , Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles , the carmakers would partially shut down factories on a "rotating" basis to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic . On March 24, representatives of Ford announced that production in the US, Canada, and Mexico would not resume on March 30 as originally planned, amid
10332-592: The Ford Fund announced its official name has changed to Ford Philanthropy. Ford has had manufacturing operations worldwide, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa. Ford also helped the Soviet Union to construct Russian automaker GAZ . In May 2010, Ford reported that its sales increased 23% for
10496-642: The French National Railway started to receive their new powerful CC 7100 electric locomotives, and began to study and evaluate running at higher speeds. In 1954, the CC 7121 hauling a full train achieved a record 243 km/h (151 mph) during a test on standard track. The next year, two specially tuned electric locomotives, the CC 7107 and the prototype BB 9004, broke previous speed records, reaching respectively 320 km/h (200 mph) and 331 km/h (206 mph), again on standard track. For
10660-565: The French National Railways twelve months to raise speeds to 200 km/h (120 mph). The classic line Paris– Toulouse was chosen, and fitted, to support 200 km/h (120 mph) rather than 140 km/h (87 mph). Some improvements were set, notably the signals system, development of on board "in-cab" signalling system, and curve revision. The next year, in May 1967, a regular service at 200 km/h (120 mph)
10824-479: The Hovercraft Development system appears to have sparked their interest, and they started funding Bertin's efforts to develop what he called the " Aérotrain ". Lacking the engineering know-how in the nascent LIM field, Bertin's early designs used propellers. Through 1964 the team built a 1/2 scale model of a small hovertrain, and a 3 km (2 mi) long track to test it on. On 29 December 1965
10988-743: The Mercury in 1939 as a higher-priced companion car to Ford. Henry Ford purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, in order to compete with such brands as Cadillac and Packard for the luxury segment of the automobile market. In 1929, Ford was contracted by the government of the Soviet Union to set up the Gorky Automobile Plant in Russia initially producing Ford Model A and AAs, thereby playing an important role in
11152-585: The Models A , B, C, F, K, N, R, and S. Hundreds or a few thousand of most of these were sold per year. In 1908, Ford introduced the mass-produced Model T , which totaled millions sold over nearly 20 years. In 1927, Ford replaced the T with the Model A , the first car with safety glass in the windshield. Ford launched the first low-priced car with a V8 engine in 1932. In an attempt to compete with General Motors' mid-priced Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick, Ford created
11316-592: The Mustang, due to declining demand and profitability. The Focus Active, a crossover SUV based on the newly unveiled fourth-generation Focus, was also intended to be marketed in the United States. Due to the vehicle being manufactured in China, Ford later announced that it would not release the Focus Active in the United States, due to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese exports . In March 2020,
11480-540: The Rohr vehicle ended in October 1975. Since then the Pueblo facility has been used for testing conventional rail vehicles, and is now known as the Transportation Technology Center. Currently all three vehicles are on display at the Pueblo Railway Foundation's workshop. High-speed rail High-speed rail ( HSR ) is a type of rail transport network utilizing trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks . While there
11644-416: The TACV program, DOT paid for the construction of the test track loops for the different prototypes. However, track construction proceeded slowly. Since the Bertin team had not yet used a LIM, the first part of the TACV program was dedicated to LIM development. Garrett AiResearch built the Linear Induction Motor Research Vehicle (LIMRV), a wheeled vehicle running on standard-gauge railroad track, fitted with
11808-616: The Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (TACV) program. TACV envisioned a LIM powered hovertrain with 300 mph (483 km/h) performance. Different elements of the technology were to be tested with different prototypes. In December 1969, the DOT selected and purchased a large parcel of land outside Pueblo, Colorado , and built the High Speed Ground Test Center (HSGTC) for the various programs. For
11972-473: The U.S. Education programs and scholarships include Alan Mulally Engineering Scholarship, Ford Blue Oval Scholars Program, Ford College Community Challenge (Ford C3), Ford Driving Dreams Tour, Ford Fund/Detroit Free Press Journalism Scholarship, Ford Next Generation Learning (Ford NGL), Grants to Individuals Program, HBCU Community Challenge, Smithsonian Latino Center Young Ambassadors Program, and William Clay Ford Automotive Design Scholarship. On April 29, 2024,
12136-549: The UK switched to elsewhere in Europe, including Belgium and Spain as well as Germany. The Ford Sierra replaced the Taunus and Cortina in 1982, drawing criticism for its radical aerodynamic styling, which was soon given nicknames, the "Jellymould" and "The Salesman's Spaceship". In February 2002, Ford ended car production in the UK. It was the first time in 90 years that Ford cars had not been made in Britain, although production of
12300-511: The UK work, however, the Aérotrain had stronger political backing, and did not suffer from the same lack of funding as its British counterpart. Several development proposals were offered and hotly debated both within SNCF and the government. After many proposals, on 21 June 1974 SNCF signed a contract for an Aérotrain line between La Défense and Cergy, on the northwestern side of Paris. On 17 July
12464-496: The US, 160 km/h (99 mph) in Germany and 125 mph (201 km/h) in Britain. Above those speeds positive train control or the European Train Control System becomes necessary or legally mandatory. National domestic standards may vary from the international ones. Railways were the first form of rapid land transportation and had an effective monopoly on long-distance passenger traffic until
12628-446: The air losses at the pads increase with speed, so an increasing amount of air must be ingested and accelerated to compensate. That increasing volume of air is at an increasingly lower speed, relative to the vehicle. The result is a non-linear increase in power dissipated into the lift air. A study by UK Tracked Hovercraft Ltd. (see below) considered the energy use of a 40-ton 100-passenger hovertrain. At 400 km/h (250 mph) and in
12792-399: The air trapped under the hovercraft's skirt will remain there except where it leaks out around the bottom of the skirt where it contacts the ground – if this interface is smooth, the amount of leaked air will be low. What was surprising was that the amount of energy lost through this process could be lower than steel wheeled vehicles, at least at high speeds. At high speeds, trains suffer from
12956-579: The beginning of the construction work, in October 1964, just in time for the Olympic Games , the first modern high-speed rail, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen , was opened between the two cities; a 510 km (320 mi) line between Tokyo and Ōsaka. As a result of its speeds, the Shinkansen earned international publicity and praise, and it was dubbed the "bullet train." The first Shinkansen trains,
13120-491: The burden of retiree health care from the company's books, thereby improving its balance sheet. This arrangement took effect on January 1, 2010. As a sign of its currently strong cash position, Ford contributed its entire current liability (estimated at US$ 5.5 billion as of December 31, 2009) to the VEBA in cash, and also pre-paid US$ 500 million of its future liabilities to the fund. The agreement also gave hourly workers
13284-443: The cancelation of this express train in 1939 has traveled between the two cities in a faster time as of 2018 . In August 2019, the travel time between Dresden-Neustadt and Berlin-Südkreuz was 102 minutes. See Berlin–Dresden railway . Further development allowed the usage of these "Fliegenden Züge" (flying trains) on a rail network across Germany. The "Diesel-Schnelltriebwagen-Netz" (diesel high-speed-vehicle network) had been in
13448-625: The chief executive officer of the company in August 2020; he previously served as Ford's chief operating officer. Hackett stayed in the company as an advisor until the second quarter of 2021. Ford is mainly owned by institutional investors, who own around 60% of shares. The largest shareholders in December 2023 were: The Ford Philanthropy, formerly known as the Ford Motor Company Fund (also known as Ford Fund, not affiliated with
13612-539: The company government funding. Construction of a test track started near Earith , Cambridgeshire in 1970. The location was chosen in a flat area that could allow up to 20 miles (32 km) of track to be laid, although funds only covered the first 4-mile (6.4 km) section. Rising costs further limited this to a short 1-mile (1.6 km) section. The prototype vehicle, RTV 31, started speed tests in 1973, in February it managed to reach 104 mph (167 km/h) in
13776-477: The company until 2014. Ford also named Mark Fields, its president of operations in the Americas, as its new chief operating officer Mulally was paid a compensation of over $ 174 million in his previous seven years at Ford since 2006. The generous amount has been a sore point for some workers of the company. In April 2016, Ford announced a plan to modernize its Dearborn engineering and headquarters campuses through
13940-400: The company; at the beginning the vaccination program would be in southeast Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, but it was to be expanded later on to other locations. In March 2022, Ford announced that it would restructure the company into three separate divisions. Ford Model E is to focus on electric vehicles; Ford Blue is to focus on internal combustion vehicles; and the existing commercial division
14104-562: The construction of high-speed rail is more costly than conventional rail and therefore does not always present an economical advantage over conventional speed rail. Multiple definitions for high-speed rail are in use worldwide. The European Union Directive 96/48/EC, Annex 1 (see also Trans-European high-speed rail network ) defines high-speed rail in terms of: The International Union of Railways (UIC) identifies three categories of high-speed rail: A third definition of high-speed and very high-speed rail requires simultaneous fulfilment of
14268-504: The contract was annulled. The September 1975 Paris-Lyon TGV line was the deathblow to the project, although small-scale work continued until 1977. During the early 1970s, it was not clear whether the hovertrain or maglev would eventually win the technology race. Krauss-Maffei , primary developer of the Transrapid and Transurban maglev trains, decided to hedge their bets and develop a hovertrain prototype of their own. The Transrapid03
14432-706: The contract with a design based on Bertin's Aérotrain, and delivered the prototype to HSGTC in Pueblo in 1974. However, there was almost no money left over, so the Rohr vehicle received only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of track, on which a maximum of only 145 mph (233 km/h) was possible. By the time the UTACV was ready for testing, most of the budget had already been used up, and no further funds were forthcoming. The need for an electricity supply system, low energy efficiency, and noise levels were seen as problems. The last tests of
14596-642: The cost of credit default swaps to insure the debt of Ford was 68 percent of the sum insured for five years, in addition to annual payments of 5 percent. That meant $ 6.8 million paid upfront to insure $ 10 million in debt, in addition to payments of $ 500,000 per year. In January 2009, Ford reported a $ 14.6 billion loss in the preceding year, a record for the company. The company retained sufficient liquidity to fund its operations. Through April 2009, Ford's strategy of debt-for-equity exchanges erased $ 9.9 billion in liabilities (28% of its total) in order to leverage its cash position. These actions yielded Ford
14760-464: The curve radius should be quadrupled; the same was true for the acceleration and braking distances. In 1891 engineer Károly Zipernowsky proposed a high-speed line from Vienna to Budapest for electric railcars at 250 km/h (160 mph). In 1893 Wellington Adams proposed an air-line from Chicago to St. Louis of 252 miles (406 km), at a speed of only 160 km/h (99 mph). Alexander C. Miller had greater ambitions. In 1906, he launched
14924-462: The day after that 250 km/h (160 mph), its design speed. For additional boost a jet engine was added, powering it to 400 km/h (250 mph) in October 1973, peaking at 430 km/h (270 mph) on 5 March 1974, a world record to this day. At the same time, Bertin started exploring the LIM for a lower-speed suburban vehicle, building a prototype known as the S44. Like their UK counterparts,
15088-603: The deputy director Marcel Tessier at the DETE ( SNCF Electric traction study department). JNR engineers returned to Japan with a number of ideas and technologies they would use on their future trains, including alternating current for rail traction, and international standard gauge. In 1957, the engineers at the private Odakyu Electric Railway in Greater Tokyo Area launched the Odakyu 3000 series SE EMU. This EMU set
15252-508: The development of the motor car and airliners in the early-mid 20th century. Speed had always been an important factor for railroads and they constantly tried to achieve higher speeds and decrease journey times. Rail transportation in the late 19th century was not much slower than non-high-speed trains today, and many railroads regularly operated relatively fast express trains which averaged speeds of around 100 km/h (62 mph). High-speed rail development began in Germany in 1899 when
15416-517: The early 1970s, a wide variety of new maglev proposals were being actively worked on around the world. The German government, in particular, was funding several different passive and active systems in order to explore which of the proposed solutions made the most sense. By the mid 1970s, several of these projects had progressed to about the same point as the hovertrains, yet appeared to have none of their disadvantages—high sound levels, blown dirt and higher energy use than initially expected. More recently,
15580-595: The early 20th century were very high-speed for their time (also Europe had and still does have some interurbans). Several high-speed rail technologies have their origin in the interurban field. In 1903 – 30 years before the conventional railways started to streamline their trains – the officials of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition organised the Electric Railway Test Commission to conduct a series of tests to develop
15744-455: The electric Mustang Mach-E SUV. According to Thatcham Research, an automotive research company, this model is not a self-driving car. It is classified as a level 2 or partial automation assistance system. This means that technology controls two or more driving aspects but still requires human driver control in cases of emergencies. The driver is still legally responsible for accidents. In August 2024 Pennsylvania State Police filed charges against
15908-438: The first time, 300 km/h (185 mph) was surpassed, allowing the idea of higher-speed services to be developed and further engineering studies commenced. Especially, during the 1955 records, a dangerous hunting oscillation , the swaying of the bogies which leads to dynamic instability and potential derailment was discovered. This problem was solved by yaw dampers which enabled safe running at high speeds today. Research
16072-575: The following two conditions: The UIC prefers to use "definitions" (plural) because they consider that there is no single standard definition of high-speed rail, nor even standard usage of the terms ("high speed", or "very high speed"). They make use of the European EC Directive 96/48, stating that high speed is a combination of all the elements which constitute the system: infrastructure, rolling stock and operating conditions. The International Union of Railways states that high-speed rail
16236-478: The formation of Ford Smart Mobility, a unit responsible for experimenting with car-sharing programs, self-driving ventures and other programs aimed at helping Ford better compete with Uber , Alphabet Inc. and other tech giants looking to edge in on the auto industry. On April 25, 2018, Ford announced that it would discontinue passenger cars in the North American market in the next four years, except for
16400-436: The further coronavirus pandemic spread. In the first quarter of 2020, Ford's sales dropped by 15%, entailing the loss of $ 2 billion. With the change in the demand for the sport vehicles, on January 6, 2021, Ford reported a sales fall of 9.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 542,749 vehicles, compared to 601,862 in 2019. In April 2021, Ford said that it would provide COVID-19 vaccines for its employees, who were to obtain them at
16564-551: The future of plug-in hybrids in terms of how home and vehicle energy systems will work with the electrical grid. Under the multimillion-dollar, multi-year project, Ford is to convert a demonstration fleet of Ford Escape Hybrids into plug-in hybrids, and SCE is to evaluate how the vehicles might interact with the home and the utility's electrical grid. Some of the vehicles are to be evaluated "in typical customer settings", according to Ford. William Clay Ford Jr. , great-grandson of Henry Ford (and better known by his nickname "Bill"),
16728-434: The gains, the company finished the year with a $ 2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo . On June 2, 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors for $ 2.3 billion. During congressional hearings held in November 2008 at Washington D.C., Ford's Alan Mulally stated that "We at Ford are hopeful that we have enough liquidity. But we also must prepare ourselves for
16892-429: The hovertrain concept, and by 1963 had developed a test-bed system about the size of a tractor-trailer that ran for short distances on a concrete pad with a central vertical surface that provided directional control. The prototype was pushed along its short test track by hand. The group at Hovercraft Development applied the LIM concept to their hovertrain almost immediately after the LIM became well known around 1961. By
17056-424: The hovertrain. In general terms, the maglev simply replaced the hover pads with electromagnets. Removing the motors and fans and replacing the pads with magnets reduced vehicle weight by about 15%. This change meant that the relatively low payload fraction of the hovercraft was greatly increased, theoretically doubling it. But much more important was that there was no need to ingest and accelerate air to feed into
17220-411: The hysteresis. That offset results in a net thrust along the reaction rail, allowing the LIM to pull itself along the rail without any physical contact. The LIM concept sparked considerable interest in the transportation world, as it offered a way to make an electric motor with no moving parts and no physical contact, which could greatly reduce maintenance needs. Laithwaite suggested that the LIM would be
17384-414: The impacts of geometric defects are intensified, track adhesion is decreased, aerodynamic resistance is greatly increased, pressure fluctuations within tunnels cause passenger discomfort, and it becomes difficult for drivers to identify trackside signalling. Standard signaling equipment is often limited to speeds below 200 km/h (124 mph), with the traditional limits of 127 km/h (79 mph) in
17548-488: The industry. Mulally stated that "In addition to our plan, we are also here today to request support for the industry. In the near-term, Ford does not require access to a government bridge loan. However, we request a credit line of $ 9 billion as a critical backstop or safeguard against worsening conditions as we drive transformational change in our company". GM and Chrysler received government loans and financing through T.A.R.P. legislation funding provisions. On December 19,
17712-461: The initial ones despite greater speeds). After decades of research and successful testing on a 43 km (27 mi) test track, in 2014 JR Central began constructing a Maglev Shinkansen line, which is known as the Chūō Shinkansen . These Maglev trains still have the traditional underlying tracks and the cars have wheels. This serves a practical purpose at stations and a safety purpose out on
17876-400: The job security they were seeking by having the company commit to substantial investments in most of its factories. The automaker reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $ 12.7 billion, and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009. However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $ 750 million profit. Despite
18040-585: The largest family-controlled companies in the world. The first gasoline-powered automobile was created in 1885 by the German inventor Karl Benz , with his Benz Patent-Motorwagen . More efficient production methods were needed to make automobiles affordable for middle class people. To which Ford contributed by, for instance, introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 at the Ford factory in Highland Park . Between 1903 and 1908, Ford produced
18204-542: The late 1940s and it consistently reached 161 km/h (100 mph) in its service life. These were the last "high-speed" trains to use steam power. In 1936, the Twin Cities Zephyr entered service, from Chicago to Minneapolis, with an average speed of 101 km/h (63 mph). Many of these streamliners posted travel times comparable to or even better than their modern Amtrak successors, which are limited to 127 km/h (79 mph) top speed on most of
18368-469: The late 1960s there was renewed interest in the maglev concept, and several study projects were starting in Germany and Japan. Through the same period, Laithwaite had invented a new form of the LIM that provided both lift and forward thrust, and could be built over a passive track like the conventional LIMs. In either case, only magnets in the immediate vicinity of the train would have to be turned on, which appeared to offer much lower overall energy needs than
18532-506: The late 1960s, major development efforts were underway in France, the UK and the USA. While they were being developed, British Rail was running an extensive study of the problems being seen at high speeds on conventional rails. This led to a series of new high-speed train designs in the 1970s, starting with their own APT . Although the hovertrains still had reduced infrastructure costs compared to
18696-526: The lead in hovertrain development. In 1967, the government handed control of Hovercraft Development to the National Physical Laboratory . At almost exactly the same time, Laithwaite severed his ties with BR. The two teams joined forces, re-organizing as Tracked Hovercraft to continue efforts to build a full-scale prototype. A combination of factors, including Laithwaite's persuasiveness and Bertin's successes in France, quickly gained
18860-432: The lines in the event of a power failure. However, in normal operation, the wheels are raised up into the car as the train reaches certain speeds where the magnetic levitation effect takes over. It will link Tokyo and Osaka by 2037, with the section from Tokyo to Nagoya expected to be operational by 2027. Maximum speed is anticipated at 505 km/h (314 mph). The first generation train can be ridden by tourists visiting
19024-519: The majority of the funding in the TACV project, ensuring the construction of 22 miles (35 km) of track, the reaction rails for the LIM propulsion were never installed. With jet engine propulsion only, no more than 90 mph (145 km/h) was achieved. The third stage of the TACV project was a complete LIM-powered hovertrain with passenger seating, the Urban Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle (UTACV). Rohr Industries won
19188-541: The mid-to-late 1990s, Ford continued to sell large numbers of vehicles, in a booming American economy with a soaring stock market and low fuel prices. With the dawn of the new century, legacy health care costs , higher fuel prices, and a faltering economy led to falling market shares, declining sales, and diminished profit margins. Most of the corporate profits came from financing consumer automobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company . By 2005, both Ford and GM 's corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status as
19352-490: The month, and that 37% of its sales came from fleet sales. In June 2010, sales to individual customers at dealerships increased 13% while fleet sales rose by 32%. In the first seven months of 2010, fleet sales of Ford for the same period rose 35% to 386,000 units while retail sales increase 19%. Fleet sales account for 39 percent of Chrysler's sales and 31 percent for GM's. At first, Ford in Germany and Ford in Britain built different models from one another until 1965, when
19516-413: The much more complex and expensive railbeds needed for conventional trains. This could dramatically reduce infrastructure capital costs of building new lines and offer a path to widespread use of high-speed trains. One of the earliest hovertrain concepts predates hovercraft by decades; in the early 1930s Andrew Kucher , an engineer at Ford , came up with the idea of using compressed air to provide lift as
19680-505: The network. The German high-speed service was followed in Italy in 1938 with an electric-multiple-unit ETR 200 , designed for 200 km/h (120 mph), between Bologna and Naples. It too reached 160 km/h (99 mph) in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of 203 km/h (126 mph) between Florence and Milan in 1938. In Great Britain in the same year, the streamlined steam locomotive Mallard achieved
19844-469: The official world speed record for steam locomotives at 202.58 km/h (125.88 mph). The external combustion engines and boilers on steam locomotives were large, heavy and time and labor-intensive to maintain, and the days of steam for high speed were numbered. In 1945, a Spanish engineer, Alejandro Goicoechea , developed a streamlined, articulated train that was able to run on existing tracks at higher speeds than contemporary passenger trains. This
20008-412: The pad as it moves. The amount of air that is lost though this mechanism is dependent on vehicle speed, surface roughness and the total area of the lift pads. The vehicle air pumps must supply new pressurized air to make up for these losses. As the vehicle weight and lift pad area is fixed, for a given vehicle design the volume of air that needs to be ingested by the pumps increases with speed. The problem
20172-448: The pads, which eliminated 2,100 kW of load and replaced it by the power needed to operate the magnets. This was estimated to be as little as 40 kW, and had much less dependency on speed. This meant that designs like the Tracked Hovercraft were squeezed between the zero-energy "lift" system of steel-wheeled trains and the low-energy lift system of the maglev, leaving no apparent role that one of those systems didn't better serve. By
20336-473: The past two years and will lose a similar amount in 2023 as the company looks to significantly invest in Electric Technology. The Ford Model E is expected to be profitable by 2026. In April 2023, United Kingdom ministers approved Ford's BlueCruise technology. Because of this assisted driving technology, Ford drivers can now legally take their hands off the wheel on certain roads. Its top speed
20500-555: The planning since 1934 but it never reached its envisaged size. All high-speed service stopped in August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of World War II . On 26 May 1934, one year after Fliegender Hamburger introduction, the Burlington Railroad set an average speed record on long distance with their new streamlined train, the Zephyr , at 124 km/h (77 mph) with peaks at 185 km/h (115 mph). The Zephyr
20664-407: The prospect of further deteriorating economic conditions". He went on to state that "The collapse of one of our competitors would have a severe impact on Ford" and that Ford Motor Company supported both Chrysler and General Motors in their search for government bridge loans during the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis . Together, the three companies presented action plans for the sustainability of
20828-417: The prototype was first placed on its upside-down T-shaped track, and on 26 March 1966 it reached 202 km/h (126 mph). Higher speeds could not be reached with a propeller on the short test track, so the engineers equipped the vehicle with small rockets and in December it reached 303 km/h (188 mph). This success garnered funding for the addition of a Turbomeca Marboré turbojet engine taken from
20992-421: The relative pressure between the pad and the outside atmosphere, and further reduced by introducing a "skirt" to close the gap between the pad and running surface as much as possible. However, as the vehicle moves another loss mechanism comes into play. This is due to the skin friction between the lift air and the ground below it. Some of the lift air "sticks" to the running surface, and is dragged out from under
21156-549: The retirement of president and chief operations officer Jim Padilla in April 2006, Bill Ford assumed his roles as well. Five months later, in September, Ford named Alan Mulally as president and CEO, with Ford continuing as executive chairman. In December 2006, the company raised its borrowing capacity to about $ 25 billion, placing substantially all corporate assets as collateral. Chairman Bill Ford has stated that "bankruptcy
21320-467: The seeds of the Aérotrain's demise were already being sown by their counterparts at the national railway. In 1966, other SNCF engineers had made the first proposals for higher speed conventional railways, a proposal that would take on a life of its own and evolve into the TGV program. Like the Tracked Hovercraft and APT, the Aérotrain project soon found itself fighting with the TGV for future development. Unlike
21484-460: The structure for mounting the reaction rail. The team secured some additional funding for the construction of a scale-model system. This was built in the yard of the Hythe site, consisting of a large loop of track about three feet off the ground. By this point the basic layout had changed, with the guideway now in the form of a box girder, with the vertical pads on the sides of the guideway rather than
21648-535: The test track. China is developing two separate high-speed maglev systems. In Europe, high-speed rail began during the International Transport Fair in Munich in June 1965, when Dr Öpfering, the director of Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways), performed 347 demonstrations at 200 km/h (120 mph) between Munich and Augsburg by DB Class 103 hauled trains. The same year
21812-425: The time the prototype was running in 1963, they had been promoting the idea of using a LIM with their suspension as the basis for a full-sized development. A small model of their proposal shows a train that looks like the fuselage of a narrow-body airliner running on a monorail track shaped like an upside-down "T". The horizontal portion provided the running surface, while the vertical provided directional tracking and
21976-487: The time were run using forced labor . The creation of a scientific laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1951, doing unfettered basic research, led to Ford's involvement in superconductivity research. In 1964, Ford Research Labs made a key breakthrough with the invention of a superconducting quantum interference device or SQUID . Ford offered the Lifeguard safety package from 1956 , which included such innovations as
22140-525: The trackside, requiring this expensive technology to be distributed all along the line. However the PTACV demonstrated that a 64,000 pounds (29 t), 60 seat vehicle needed only 560 kW (750 hp) at 142 mph (229 km/h) for its air suspension and guidance system. At 431 km/h (268 mph), the French I80 HV (80 seats) reached similar figures. The idea of using magnets to levitate
22304-733: The use of this brand name was discontinued with the introduction of the Ford Transit in 1965. Elsewhere in continental Europe, Ford assembles the Mondeo, Galaxy , S-Max and Kuga in Valencia (Spain), Fiesta in Cologne (Germany), Focus in Saarlouis (Germany), Ecosport and Puma in Craiova (Romania). Ford also owns a joint-venture production plant in Turkey. Ford Otosan , established in
22468-450: The vehicle corresponding to the windings on a conventional motor, and a metal plate on the tracks acting as the stator. When the windings are energized, the magnetic field they produce causes an opposite field to be induced in the plate. There is a short delay between field and induced field due to hysteresis . By carefully timing the energizing of the windings, the fields in the windings and "reaction rail" will be slightly offset due to
22632-430: The vehicle, the pressure on the running surface is greatly reduced – about 1 ⁄ 10,000 the pressure of a train wheel, about 1 ⁄ 20 of the pressure of a tire on a road. These two properties meant that the running surface could be considerably simpler than the surface needed to support the same vehicle on wheels; hovertrains could be supported on surfaces similar to existing light-duty roadways, instead of
22796-586: The vehicles are more commonly referred to by their project names where they were developed. In the UK they are known as tracked hovercraft , in the US they are tracked air-cushion vehicles . The first hovertrain was developed by Jean Bertin in the early 1960s in France, where they were marketed as the Aérotrain before being abandoned by the French government. Hovertrains were seen as a relatively low-risk and low-cost way to develop high-speed inter-city train service, in an era when conventional rail seemed stuck to speeds around 140 mph (230 km/h) or less. By
22960-668: The voting rights. During the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis , the company struggled financially but did not have to be rescued by the federal government, unlike the other two major US automakers. Ford Motors has since returned to profitability, and was the eleventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2018 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2017 of $ 156.7 billion. In 2023, Ford produced 4.4 million automobiles, and employed about 177,000 employees worldwide. The company operates joint ventures in China ( Changan Ford ), Taiwan ( Ford Lio Ho ), Thailand ( AutoAlliance Thailand ), and Turkey ( Ford Otosan ). Ford owns
23124-540: The wider rail gauge, and thus standard gauge was adopted for high-speed service. With the sole exceptions of Russia, Finland, and Uzbekistan all high-speed rail lines in the world are still standard gauge, even in countries where the preferred gauge for legacy lines is different. The new service, named Shinkansen (meaning new main line ) would provide a new alignment, 25% wider standard gauge utilising continuously welded rails between Tokyo and Osaka with new rolling stock, designed for 250 km/h (160 mph). However,
23288-707: The world as Fordism . Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover , acquired in 1989 and 2000, respectively, were sold to the Indian automaker Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In the third quarter of 2010, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed upscale cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East since 1938. Ford
23452-629: The world's population, without a single train passenger fatality. (Suicides, passengers falling off the platforms, and industrial accidents have resulted in fatalities.) Since their introduction, Japan's Shinkansen systems have been undergoing constant improvement, not only increasing line speeds. Over a dozen train models have been produced, addressing diverse issues such as tunnel boom noise, vibration, aerodynamic drag , lines with lower patronage ("Mini shinkansen"), earthquake and typhoon safety, braking distance , problems due to snow, and energy consumption (newer trains are twice as energy-efficient as
23616-962: The world's total. In addition to these, many other countries have developed high-speed rail infrastructure to connect major cities, including: Austria , Belgium , Denmark , Finland , Greece , Indonesia , Morocco , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Portugal , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Serbia , South Korea , Sweden , Switzerland , Taiwan , Turkey , the United Kingdom , the United States , and Uzbekistan . Only in continental Europe and Asia does high-speed rail cross international borders. High-speed trains mostly operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated rights of way with large radii . However, certain regions with wider legacy railways , including Russia and Uzbekistan, have sought to develop
23780-470: Was achieved by providing the locomotive and cars with a unique axle system that used one axle set per car end, connected by a Y-bar coupler. Amongst other advantages, the centre of mass was only half as high as usual. This system became famous under the name of Talgo ( Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol ), and for half a century was the main Spanish provider of high-speed trains. In the early 1950s,
23944-530: Was also made about "current harnessing" at high-speed by the pantographs, which was solved 20 years later by the Zébulon TGV 's prototype. With some 45 million people living in the densely populated Tokyo– Osaka corridor, congestion on road and rail became a serious problem after World War II , and the Japanese government began thinking about ways to transport people in and between cities. Because Japan
24108-495: Was appointed executive chairman in 1998, and also became chief executive officer of the company in 2001, with the departure of Jacques Nasser , becoming the first member of the Ford family to head the company since the retirement of his uncle, Henry Ford II , in 1982. Ford sold motorsport engineering company Cosworth to Gerald Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven in 2004, the start of a decrease in Ford's motorsport involvement. Upon
24272-403: Was extended a further 161 km (100 mi), and further construction has resulted in the network expanding to 2,951 km (1,834 mi) of high speed lines as of 2024, with a further 211 km (131 mi) of extensions currently under construction and due to open in 2031. The cumulative patronage on the entire system since 1964 is over 10 billion, the equivalent of approximately 140% of
24436-728: Was first tested in the summer of 1972, but by this time the maglev had proven itself and further work ended the next year. As part of the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 , the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) received funds to develop a series of high-speed trains. In addition to funding development of the successful UAC TurboTrain and more conventional projects, the FRA also took out licenses on Bertin's designs and started efforts to build several prototype vehicles under
24600-535: Was followed by several European countries, initially in Italy with the Direttissima line, followed shortly thereafter by France , Germany , and Spain . Today, much of Europe has an extensive network with numerous international connections. More recent construction since the 21st century has led to China taking a leading role in high-speed rail. As of 2023 , China's HSR network accounted for over two-thirds of
24764-417: Was forced to divest the design as part of an antitrust ruling. The design eventually ended up at Otis Elevator who later replaced its linear motor with a cable pull and sold the resulting design for people mover installations all over the world. It was noticed early on that the energy needed to lift a hovercraft was directly related to the smoothness of the surface it traveled on. This was not surprising;
24928-720: Was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln brand. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family . They have minority ownership but a plurality of the voting power. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines . By 1914, these methods were known around
25092-518: Was going to cut 3,800 jobs across Europe, with the job cuts mainly focusing on their German and British workforce. Ford will be cutting 2,300 jobs from Germany, 1,300 from the United Kingdom, and an additional 200 jobs in the rest of Europe, according to the head of Ford Germany, Martin Sander. The cuts will mainly be done to the company's engineers. Ford also announced during the year that their electric vehicle business had lost $ 3 billion before taxes over
25256-566: Was inaugurated by the TEE Le Capitole between Paris and Toulouse , with specially adapted SNCF Class BB 9200 locomotives hauling classic UIC cars, and a full red livery. It averaged 119 km/h (74 mph) over the 713 km (443 mi). Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford ) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan , United States. It
25420-552: Was introduced on April 17, 1964, during the 1964 New York World's Fair , where Ford had a pavilion made by The Walt Disney Company . In 1965, Ford introduced the seat belt reminder light. With the 1980s, Ford introduced several highly successful vehicles around the world. During the 1980s, Ford began using the advertising slogan, "Have you driven a Ford, lately?" to introduce new customers to their brand and make their vehicles appear more modern. In 1990 and 1994, respectively, Ford also acquired Jaguar Cars and Aston Martin . During
25584-543: Was made of stainless steel and, like the Fliegender Hamburger, was diesel powered, articulated with Jacobs bogies , and could reach 160 km/h (99 mph) as commercial speed. The new service was inaugurated 11 November 1934, traveling between Kansas City and Lincoln , but at a lower speed than the record, on average speed 74 km/h (46 mph). In 1935, the Milwaukee Road introduced
25748-407: Was not only a part of the Shinkansen revolution: the Shinkansen offered high-speed rail travel to the masses. The first Bullet trains had 12 cars and later versions had up to 16, and double-deck trains further increased the capacity. After three years, more than 100 million passengers had used the trains, and the milestone of the first one billion passengers was reached in 1976. In 1972, the line
25912-487: Was put into vehicle use until the 1950s, when several efforts used Levapad-like arrangements running on conventional rails as a way to avoid the hunting problems and provide high-speed service. A 1958 article in Modern Mechanix is one of the first popular introductions of the Levapad concept. The article focuses on cars, based on Ford's prototype "Glideair" vehicle, but quotes Kucher noting "We look upon Glideair as
26076-472: Was resource limited and did not want to import petroleum for security reasons, energy-efficient high-speed rail was an attractive potential solution. Japanese National Railways (JNR) engineers began to study the development of a high-speed regular mass transit service. In 1955, they were present at the Lille 's Electrotechnology Congress in France, and during a 6-month visit, the head engineer of JNR accompanied
26240-511: Was responsible for the manufacture and sale of the famous Continental Mark II . At the same time, the Edsel division was created to design and market that car starting with the 1958 model year. Due to limited sales of the Continental and the Edsel disaster, Ford merged Mercury, Edsel, and Lincoln into "M-E-L," which reverted to "Lincoln-Mercury" after Edsel's November 1959 demise. The Ford Mustang
26404-402: Was still more than 30 years away. After the breakthrough of electric railroads, it was clearly the infrastructure – especially the cost of it – which hampered the introduction of high-speed rail. Several disasters happened – derailments, head-on collisions on single-track lines, collisions with road traffic at grade crossings, etc. The physical laws were well-known, i.e. if the speed was doubled,
26568-419: Was suggesting that the hunting problems seen on existing trains could be addressed through development of suitable suspension systems. BR lost interest in the hovertrain concept, and moved on to their Advanced Passenger Train (APT) efforts shortly thereafter. In the meantime, the Hythe team had no funds for the full-scale test system they were proposing, and complained at Hovershow that the French would be taking
26732-615: Was to eliminate any physical contact with the running surface, especially wheels, some sort of contact-less thrust would have to be provided. There were various proposals using air ducted from the lift fans, propeller, or even jet engines , but none of these could approach the efficiency of an electric motor powering a wheel. At about the same time, Eric Laithwaite was building the first practical linear induction motors (LIMs), which, prior to his efforts, had been limited to "toy" systems. A LIM can be built in several different ways, but in its simplest form it consists of an active portion on
26896-477: Was too heavy for much of the tracks, so Cincinnati Car Company , J. G. Brill and others pioneered lightweight constructions, use of aluminium alloys, and low-level bogies which could operate smoothly at extremely high speeds on rough interurban tracks. Westinghouse and General Electric designed motors compact enough to be mounted on the bogies. From 1930 on, the Red Devils from Cincinnati Car Company and
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