Transports Ideas That Did Not Last Long: Made by Rahema, Asad and Hamdan

TRANSPORTS IDEAS THAT DID NOT
LAST LONG
MADE BY RAHEMA, ASAD AND

HAMDAN
WHAT DOES TRANSPORT MEAN AND WHY
DON’T SOME IDEAS LAST LONG?
 According to Oxford Dictionary, transport is to take or carry (people or goods) from one
place to another by means of a vehicle, aircraft, or ship.
 There are many ideas that pay off very well such as introduction of cars or airplanes. But
there is a catch to it, there are many great hypothesis and ideas that seem excellent on
paper but don’t pay off on ground realities.

BEACH PNEUMATIC TRANSIT
 The first subway in the US was the brainchild of inventor Alfred Beach, and it was
literally a blast. Tunnelling for the it began underground of New York in 1869.
 In the first two weeks, more than 11,000 New Yorkers rode the pneumatic transit. Some
400,000 tickets were sold in the single year it was operational. Beach had planned to
extend the line by 8 kilometres, but had trouble getting permission from the government.
 It’s safety measures had a big question mark on it. Better ideas and lack of public
interest later, meant that financial support had drained away. Still, Beach’s vision had a
practical legacy in the New York pneumatic tube mail system, which ran until 1953.
AEROTRAIN
 All the comfort and speed of a magnetic train, but without the technical complexity and
expense – was the aim of Aérotrain, a hover train developed in France from 1965. This
stylish Aérotrain carried a crew of two and was powered by turbojets. It became popular
on Day 1 but was abandoned in 1977. So, what went wrong for it?
 First, there was the death of its lead engineer. Lack of funding was another problem.
Another crucial reason was that it carried only 15-20 passengers and it didn’t make it a
viable investment opportunity. And the final nail in the coffin came when, the French
government decided to adopt its rival TGV. So, despite all the promise, the technology
never went mainstream.
TRANSIT ELEVATED BUS
 China’s “straddling bus” is the latest in a long and glorious line of failed mass transport.
Conceived in 2000, the Transit Elevated Bus came to the end of the line amid
allegations of financial shenanigans. Not surprisingly, this bizarre prototype attracted
considerable attention when it made its maiden voyage in China
 Unfortunately, funding wasn’t the only obstacle. The bus would have needed to recharge
at every station. And with a clearance of just 2.1 metres, it would do damage to a large
car, let alone a truck. Rails would need to be fitted; bridges and road signs moved. With
a projected cost of $4.5 million per carriage, you could buy 11 regular electric buses for
the same price. And as for cornering – don’t even mention it.
ITHACUS SENIA
 We all know how USA loves to invade countries so they needed technology to make it
easier for them. To reduce the need for overseas US army bases, they pondered about
building rocket capable of carrying a battalion of 1200 soldiers. Ithacus was conceived
as a 6400-tonne beast, standing 64 metres tall. Its rocket-powered vertical take-off and
landing would provide a rapid-strike capability for “rocket commandos”. Work started on
it in 1985 and project was scrapped in 1991. What could possibly go wrong?
 Well, for a start, flying Ithacus home would be impossible without a custom-built launch
pad. The nuclear-powered Ithacus, launched from an aircraft carrier, posed even more
logistical problems. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither made it past the drawing board.
JET PACKS
 They first appeared in pop culture in the form of comic books. In 1967, the
public’s jetpack fetish came to a head when a pair of helmeted flyers buzzed
the LA Memorial Coliseum during halftime of Super Bowl I.
 Jet packs still do exist, but they’re typically found in Hollywood stunts. Its fuel is
extremely expensive for someone to afford and lack of safety measures is a big
drawback.
 In 2014, a company called Martin Jetpack announced they were making

jetpacks available for sale. The price? About £83,000. But, they never got the
license for it’s sale due to lack of safety measures in jetpacks
3 WHEELER SINGLE PERSON CAR
 Peel P50, a British-made three-wheeler —the world’s smallest car debuted
inauspiciously in 1962. The company had to retire the P50 in 1965 as it was not
being sold at all. Its starting price was £25,000 which equals around 4.5 Million PKR
 These days, one-seaters are limited to go-karts. They could not make big due to
lack of their storage space and their engines being extremely underpowered.
They could not go above 60 km/h and only 1 person could sit in it. These features
could not define it’s heavy price tag. This made it a useless car

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TRANSPORTS IDEAS THAT DID NOT

MADE BY RAHEMA, ASAD AND

place to another by means of a vehicle, aircraft, or ship.

paper but don’t pay off on ground realities.

 In 2014, a company called Martin Jetpack announced they were making

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