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Future of Maglev in the US Military

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the vroooooom dept.

The Hippy of Death writes "An article at The Weekly Standard discusses the current maglev research being funded by the US military. From the article: 'But what if you could drastically reduce the amount of noise a ship makes directly at the source? ...Vibration & Sound Solutions Limited suggested placing mag-lev sensors at the source of the electromagnetic fields, such as motors. The idea was to actually levitate the machinery with an array of electromagnets while using a small amount of power.'"

3 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. So by garrett714 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What happens when the power dies and all of those sitting in seats fall on their asses?

  2. Rig for silent running. by GomezAdams · · Score: 2, Interesting
    As a long ago submarine sonarman I think this has some potential but the noise we tracked was caused by cavitation of the screws and at least a minor difference in one screw blade. I don't see how this technology would stop that. Cavitation noise reduction requires extremely expensive processes to make the prop very balanced and smooth. But as with anything else under stress the physical shape would be altered and making tracking and turn counting easier. I served on a sub outfitted as a killer sub. A sub that tracked other submarines and we had all the best technology available in the 50s. to reduce noise and our job was to keep the noise level down at all times. It will be worth watching for the civilian application of this.

    In the ocean there are two types of vessels. Submarines and targets.

    --
    Too lazy to create a sig...
  3. Re:Public benefits of military research. by mallardtheduck · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now, if the Navy starts trying to use fine-grain control over EM fields to attempt to shield steel hulls from magnetic detection, I'm going to be in awe.

    I know it's not fine-grained, but shielding steel hulls from magnetic detection is old news. The British used degaussing techniques to counter German magnetic mines in WW2.

    Modern warships usually carry a complex arrangement of degaussing coils to reduce as much as possible their magnetic profile.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degaussing