The FLYWAY Components

The FLYWAY® Components

Aim for full production, and you get full employment.
Aim for full employment, and you get everything except just that. (Parkinson)

FlyWay is SwedeTrack System´s own solution to the urban public transportation problem

Anfang e talk a lot on this website about the advantages of automated beamcarried transports. But what about SwedeTrack´s own product? What about "FLYWAY®"?
We will devote this page to a non-technical overview of the hardware and software that are included in the "FLYWAY®" product. This is a page that will continually be updated, as alterations are called for. On other webpages (with the FLYWAY® logo) you will find more detailed descriptions of these components we have included in our "FLYWAY®" package.

General
The 3 beamsizes
Beam attachments and poles
12 sizes of PRT-cars
1 size of GRT-cars
Beamcars for passengers and goods
3 kinds of freight carriers
4 sizes of stops

1. General

aturally, "FLYWAY®" has inherited much of what is required for a functioning beam network from other sources. And, as emphasized elsewhere on this site, we at SwedeTrack System consider it important that all system interfaces adhere as much as possible to international standards for such systems, if and when these standards are available, and suitable to "FLYWAY´s®" special features. Of course, we would be happy if other manufacturer´s beamcars could travel on our beams. And certainly, we would like our beamcars to be able to travel on other beams than ours.

But on these pages, headed by the "FLYWAY®" logo, we present those details that are more or less unique for "FLYWAY®"

These details are:

The 3 beamsizes, to accomodate different loads.
The different sets of beamcars, varying sizes and for varying purposes.
The propulsion cars inside the beams.
The lift arrangement, that can lower a beamcar to streetlevel.
The swivelling arrangements, that permit swivelling the car 90 degress around its vertical axis, in either direction.
The protective cubicles with automatic doors at the stations, that will prevent accidents caused by lowering beamcars.
The power supply arrangement.
Control and supervision of the system.
The routing of beamcars.
The Communications Systems.
The addressing system, adopted from Internet´s IP-protocol.
The use of the Bluetooth standard for passenger interface to the system.
The use of the Bluetooth standard for communications with the beamcars.
The use of a quite sophisticated obstacle detection system.

2. The 3 Beamsizes

The "FLYWAY®" beams come in 3 sizes:

Category 1: Width x Height = 0.50 x 0.90 meters for loads up to 0.7 tons
Category 2: Width x Height = 0.70 x 0.90 meters for loads up to 2 tons
Category 3: Width x Height = 0.90 x 0.90 meters for cargoes up to 7 tons

To maintain a certain degree of flexibility, beam parts in a few other sizes are also provided for (see "Parameters for beams"), and these parts could be combined to produce beams with other dimensions.

These load limitations mean that the whole beam network might not be available to all beamcars. There are 2 reasons for this:

By reserving part of the network for light beamcars, the size and weight of the beams can be reduced.
By reserving part of the network for small beamcars, the beam network can reach places where adequate space would otherwise not be available, such as narrow streets in old downtown areas.

Figure 2:1

Arbitrary radius of curvature would be attained by attaching small, curved elements to the beams, as shown in the illustration.There would thus be 3 types of beam elements:

straight, in arbitrary lengths up to 30 meters
shunts

adjustable bent elements, 1/16 of a circle, i.e. 22.5 degrees.

Suggestions for assembling beam elements

Figure 2:2

3. Beam attachments and poles

Assembly elements of paired support poles

Figure 3:1

"FLYWAY®" has a complete set of interconnectible parts, to enable attachment to any kind of supporting structure, as described on other pages on this site. Thus, the "FLYWAY®" beams can be attached:

Figure 3:2

to regular one-side and two-side poles
to attachments on several tiers, crossing each other at any angle, as shown at right
to crossbeams between poles or other supports
to tunnel roofs
to walls and ceilings of buildings
to wires when forming suspension bridges

Figure 3:3

4. 12 sizes of PRT-cars

he PRT-cabins come in 11 physical sizes, but the biggest cabin has a model where 3 seats have been removed, making 12 sizes in all, as far as passenger-carrying capacity goes. They are divided into size-categories. Beamcars in beam category 1 can of course travel on all beams, cars in beam category 2 cannot travel on the smallest beams, and cars in category 3 would be restricted to the largest beams. In addition, the width of the cars restrict them potentially from travelling everywhere. The interior height is somewhat more generous than with motorcars: The one-seat wide: 1.5 meters high The two-seat wide: 1.7 meters high The three-seat wide: 2.0 meters high The doors are preferably of the sliding type. In some situations, the opening doors might have to cover each other. In such a case, the "outer" door would be of the swivel type, as illustrated below.

he PRT-cabins come in 11 physical sizes, but the biggest cabin has a model where 3 seats have been removed, making 12 sizes in all, as far as passenger-carrying capacity goes. They are divided into size-categories. Beamcars in beam category 1 can of course travel on all beams, cars in beam category 2 cannot travel on the smallest beams, and cars in category 3 would be restricted to the largest beams. In addition, the width of the cars restrict them potentially from travelling everywhere.

The interior height is somewhat more generous than with motorcars:

The one-seat wide: 1.5 meters high
The two-seat wide: 1.7 meters high
The three-seat wide: 2.0 meters high

The doors are preferably of the sliding type. In some situations, the opening doors might have to cover each other. In such a case, the "outer" door would be of the swivel type, as illustrated below.

5. 1 size of GRT-cars

he 32-seat GRT-car shown here is pretty optimal. There is no need to have more modells than this one. It is rather spacious, with standing room, as in buses and trains. It has 2 lifts, for stability reasons, which work in parallell, and they are computer-controlled so that the car stays level during passage of sloping beams. This model cannot (of course) swivel.	Figure 5:1

Anfang he 32-seat GRT-car shown here is pretty optimal. There is no need to have more modells than this one. It is rather spacious, with standing room, as in buses and trains. It has 2 lifts, for stability reasons, which work in parallell, and they are computer-controlled so that the car stays level during passage of sloping beams. This model cannot (of course) swivel.

32-seat FlyWay GRT-car for long-haul trips

Figure 5:1

6. Beamcars for passengers and goods

Figure 6:1

n this category, 7 models of beamcars of varying capacity have been created, by simply removing some seats on a selected number of PRT-cars. The idea is that these seats could be removed and replaced at the beamcar service garages, as the need arises. But in so doing, some parameters in the beamcar computers have to be altered so that the beamcars become aware of their new role.

The interior height is of course the same as for the corresponding beamcars with seats:

The one-seat wide (models 4xxx): 1.5 meters high
The two-seat wide (models 5xxx): 1.7 meters high
The three-seat wide (models 6xxx): 2.0 meters high

Figure 6:2

FlyWay beamcars for passengers and goods

Figure 6:3

7. 3 kinds of freight carriers

Figure 7:1

The "FLYWAY®" concept includes 3 models of beamcars for handling of goods:

Flatcars for transport of motor vehicles, but also other kinds of goods.

How beam-carried vehicles can handle containers

Figure 7:2

Grappling hooks for carrying containers. These have to be in 3 classes for varying sizes and weights of the containers to be moved, so that the weight- and width-restrictions of various beam routes are not exceeded.
Attachments for specially adapted road vehicles. The cars are carried by way of their roofs, and in the case of electrical road vehicles, power outlets for recharging of the vehicle´s battery during transport would be available.

Figure 7:3

8. 4 sizes of stops

"FLYWAY®" will preferably use the protective cubicles mentioned in "Safety at Stations". These are only used for passenger service (and only in the FLYWAY system), not for goods of any kind. They can be used for PRT-cars as well as GRT-cars. These cubicles have to be adapted to: the length of the vehicles the width of the vehicles . This is no problem. The tricky part is the doors. If one strives for matching doors, i.e. the cubicle-doors should match the cabin doors, we would need 11 models for the PRT-vehicles alone! The obvious solution to this would be to open practically the whole longsides of the cubicles as the beamcar docks. This is further explained on the page dealing with the FlyWay stations. One problem that has to be solved is cubicles with roofs, which fold up when a cabin is about to be lowered, as is shown on the illustration at lower right. These roofs are only really needed in places that can expect huge amounts of snow at times. The best solution to this is to hinge the roof at both ends on protruding attachments, which reach outside the doors, as shown at right. When the roof is raised, the path is free for the doors to go up. When the beamcar is about to leave, the cubicle doors go down, the cabin is raised, and finally the roof folds back down, in that order.	Station cubicle with foldable roof.

"FLYWAY®" will preferably use the protective cubicles mentioned in "Safety at Stations". These are only used for passenger service (and only in the FLYWAY system), not for goods of any kind. They can be used for PRT-cars as well as GRT-cars.

These cubicles have to be adapted to:

the length of the vehicles
the width of the vehicles

. This is no problem. The tricky part is the doors. If one strives for matching doors, i.e. the cubicle-doors should match the cabin doors, we would need 11 models for the PRT-vehicles alone! The obvious solution to this would be to open practically the whole longsides of the cubicles as the beamcar docks. This is further explained on the page dealing with the FlyWay stations.

One problem that has to be solved is cubicles with roofs, which fold up when a cabin is about to be lowered, as is shown on the illustration at lower right. These roofs are only really needed in places that can expect huge amounts of snow at times. The best solution to this is to hinge the roof at both ends on protruding attachments, which reach outside the doors, as shown at right. When the roof is raised, the path is free for the doors to go up. When the beamcar is about to leave, the cubicle doors go down, the cabin is raised, and finally the roof folds back down, in that order.

One idea to keep the landing area free from snow and thrown-in objects

Station cubicle with foldable roof.

Roof only opens when the berth is visited by a FlyWay beamcar. At other times, the landing area is not accessible for unauthorized persons from any direction.

Copyright © 2004, SwedeTrack System.	Last Updated: 2009-11-14	-	This site is maintained by Johnson Consulting