Perhaps you have not heard the Japanese now have a bullet train that exceeds 250 mph. The only problem is that takes a long time to slow down, so it doesn't reach Top Speed on every trip or stay at those Top Speed for very long. But its speed is what you need then this bullet train is best of breed. The previous fastest bullet trains ran at 125 miles an hour in Japan between our Osaka and Tokyo. But the French with their TGV bullet train has run at a top speed of 218 mph. But this new Japanese bullet train runs consistently at 223 mph on a daily basis with a top speed of 250 mph. Of course in Japan, you will have to slow down quick if there is an earthquake and the Japanese have already thought about that too. The bullet train has spoilers, which come out like giant Japanese fans to break the air and slow the train down as much as 10 mph per second and back down to 55 mph, when the brakes kick in hard. The nosecone of the bullet train is over 52 feet long in order to shape the airflows so they will streamline along the body at those high rates of speed. Engineers say that the bullet train is even more stable at high speed due to the relative wind and special shaping of the airflows. Consider this in 2006. |
