UST: News

An interview with Anatoly Yunitskiy, General designer and author of SkyWay, in which he will tell about the progress of construction at EcoTechnoPark, preparation for the forthcoming EcoFest 2018, development of new transport complexes and modernization of existing routes.

Translation of the video:

Mikhail Kirichenko: Hallo! Here is Mikhail Kirichenko with you. You are watching SkyWay news, where we are reporting on the developments and implementation of breakthrough transport technologies.

We are at EcoTechnoPark now and the work is in full swing here. Not only regarding preparation to EcoFest, but also at the touring transport line completed long ago. In addition, construction of a new transportation system has been started. We'll try to receive comments to all this for you from Anatoly Yunitskiy, General designer of SkyWay Technologies Co.

Anatoly, a question arises right now. It seems everyone knows this support of the semi-rigid track structure at the lightweight transport system. However, we see some strengthening and more metal pieces, nuts and bolts here. Tell us what is happening here and why.

Anatoly Yunitskiy: Now, at EcoFest and in the future, we want to examine operation of this system under greater load. We wanted a 3.5-ton unibus circling along it. A 14-passenger one. More load may be applied in the future. That's why we are transforming a lightweight track to a grade of a heavy route.

We want to increase the load-carrying capacity of the overpass system by 5 times. Therefore, we will be able to do any targeted project step-by-step. Suppose, in some 20, 30, 50 years the haulage volume will increase. Normally, any route is built with regards of prospects. If we build a track for the future haulage now, it will be 5 times more expensive and it will not pay back. That's why at first we can do a lightweight system that will work out and pay back. Then we can reconstruct it. And reconstruction will cost less than the initial construction. Thus, it would be possible to do targeted projects more reasonably. At any stage of implementing such a project, it will be repaid and profitable.

M.K.: Thank you. Now about the construction of the completely new transportation system. I have seen that one anchor support is almost finished, the second one is being erected and metal elements for intermediate supports are delivered. What is it?

A.Y.: It is a superlight system. It will be lighter than the touring system. It will have 200-meter spans and light vehicles will run on it.

M.K.: Even lighter than unibike?

A.Y.: Yes. Monorail and double-rail. We want to demonstrate that both monorail and double-rail vehicles can ride on the same route. The track is sufficiently wide for both of them. Two-passenger pods will run on the monorail track and 4-passenger modules will ride on the double-rail one. Their carrying capacity will be 200-400 kg, like in a light car. In Soviet times, summer cottages fed the entire country, because there was a lack of food in the shops. Naturally, the whole food was grown at summer cottages. It was transported in packets and bags with electric trains and light cars. Some 200 kg, several bags of potato, not more. This track is the analogue of that transport system, which can feed the whole country. This light transport system can deliver millions of tons of cargo per year. There is no reason to build a very expensive high-speed railroad for hundreds of kilometers to a remote village. Perhaps, it would be better to build such light route costing USD 200-500 thousand per kilometer and to solve the problem of accessibility to any point of a vast country like Russia. There should be rationality and optimization in everything.

M.K.: Required and sufficient.

A.Y.: Certainly. We do it just this way. I am going to show what we are reconstructing there on the board.

I start with L-shaped supports. This is their design fixed in the foundation. If we increase the load by 5 times, we shall have the bending moment and additional wind load on supports, the track and rolling stock. The support will simply break down at the point of the maximum bending moment. Therefore, the body of the support should be strengthened. We've done it with angle bars connected with plates. The strengthening was also tightly fixed. We've done it, too. That's why the supports will hold a 5-times more load. The foundation itself will be done for more load, too. Thus, we will be able to launch a heavier vehicle, a unibus in this case that will ride at a very small height of 0.5 m. This is about supports. If we consider the track structure, it is a rectangular steel tube of a very small height, only 120 mm. Such is the whole rail. However, this height is not sufficient to hold steel ropes that pass inside with a sag. Therefore, it is all filled with concrete. This is a suspension bridge. What is a suspension bridge? Here is one pylon, here is the other one. Here is the stiffening beam, on which transport moves. There is a carrying steel rope. And there is a suspension. What is a string rail? A stiffening beam, a carrying steel rope and suspension with filling. It is equal to a suspension bridge. Just as an engineer, I managed to contract it to a rail by determining the tension force, mass, dimensions, etc. Certainly, it was difficult to contract it to 120 mm, but we did it for a small load. There is no overbending in it. There is a saddle here and here inside the rail. There are also mechanical fastenings in addition to concrete. They are inside and filled with concrete. So, we increase the load now. By the way, we did not want to make a straight track or a counter-curvature. We wanted to make a wavy surface under the load of moving vehicles. The wave length is 40 m. These accessible deflections are about 100 mm under the load. That's what we have at the track now. So we want to launch bigger pods of larger weight.

M.K.: Will it be a 14-passenger unibus or something else bigger?

A.Y.: No, it can be heavier, up to 5 tons.

M.K.: Unibus weights 3.5 tons.

A.Y.: Right. Now we are making it up to 5 tons. We have a solution already and we are designing it now. Actually, this work is about to finish. We are doing it with internal strings, 3 steel ropes, fixed and filled with concrete. In the other version we have two rails, two steel tubes with steel strings filled inside.

M.K.: Perhaps, you should not disclose all the secrets?

A.Y.: These secrets are disclosed in a monograph and "100 questions - 100 answers". All of it is available there. You have just to read it. Nobody wants to read. Lazy people. Or, maybe, they don't want it. It is much easier to criticize when you do not know what you are criticizing. If you know it, there are no items to criticize. And trolls read nothing. And they know nothing.

Moreover, we add external strings arranged here and passing in the same way. We can bring them up higher increasing the height of the beam. Therefore, with the help of external strings we shall not only remove sags, but also make counter-curvatures of certain value. So as to ride on an even track under certain load. If the load is more, it will go down within acceptable value. If the load is less, there will be a small hillock on the span, not a dimple, but a hillock.

M.K.: And the dimple will be on the support.

A.Y.: Yes, if it is a lightweight pod that will not be able to deflect it down. That's why we always do optimization to have it all within acceptable limits. We shall demonstrate it all at EcoFest when we shall provide a ride to our guests, our investors and partners, including the touring track, which we shall turn into a full-fledged urban route within several months.

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