Hybrid train-plane aims to disrupt air transport
By Ryan Noik 17 July 2018 | Categories: newsIf there is one industry that is ripe for disruption it is aviation, with airplanes, as we know them having largely been the same for over 50 years. Well, it looks like the airplane’s time to be disrupted is not far off, if the latest hybrid train-plane concept takes off.
Akka Technologies’ link-and-flying train envisions passengers boarding its tube-like pod at a train station and being transported to the airport. There, the wings and engine are added and the plane takes off. If you think about it – and if it can be made to work – it actually makes a lot of sense. The cylindrical tube that is a train and the cylindrical tube with wings that is a plane, have plenty in common as to how they actually accommodate passengers.
Maurice Riki, Akka’s CEO, has been quoted as saying that after cars go electric and autonomous (both of which are already happening), the next big disruption will be in airplanes.
The link-and-fly train is apparently mostly envisioned being used for domestic flights rather than long international ones. Take a look at the video below to see one form of transportation turn into another, and just perhaps, what the near future may portend.
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