The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 01, 1993
Filed:
Apr. 16, 1992
Fumio Iida, Hitachi, JP;
Naofumi Tada, Hitachi, JP;
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A track vehicle such as a Maglev train has a body with superconducting coils mounted thereon which superconducting coils interact with vertically extending coils on guideways of a track to generate a propulsive force. The vehicle runs on wheels at low speeds but at higher speeds the superconducting coils may interact with ground coils to generate a lifting force. In order to reduce or eliminate stresses between the superconducting coils and the vehicle body, the vehicle has one or more wings of airfoil shape which generate lift. That lift may be sufficient to support the whole of the weight of the vehicle, enabling the ground coils to be eliminated. Furthermore, the shape of the superconducting coils may be changed so that they supply more energy to propulsive effects. Preferably the angle of incidence of the wing(s) is variable, to permit the lift generated thereby to be varied. This variation in the angle of incidence may be controlled by a sensor detecting the height of the body above the track, to maintain that height constant.