UST: News

High-speed transport is another reason for pride of those who are involved in SkyWay Group of Companies. Beautiful, streamlined, futuristic, with unique aerodynamic features, close to the theoretical limit in practice. Today it has become even closer to the launch into mass production.

This unibus was first showcased in Berlin InnoTrans-2018, where it attracted attention of a large number of guests. Capable to accelerate to 500 km/h and provide high passenger traffic 5 times less-costly than its rail or air colleagues.

Many people wondered why we laid low after such success. And now it’s time to reveal the cards. We were preparing for performance trials. We have upgraded the rolling surface on the truss trestle and were manufacturing a mule. A mule in this case is a vehicle “to solve problems”. It completely repeats the exterior and all unibus nodes, but it provides a quick and direct access to all elements. Since engineers should monitor what may require software or technical improvements in the mule. The stages when they arise. As a result, researchers will determine “bottlenecks”, ways to improve them and forecast the timing of maintenance. When all the issues are resolved, the transport can be launched into mass production.

A week before EcoFest, operational tests began. But already now this unibus can boast of a special undercarriage system. It provides smooth movement and high speed at low dynamic ride. To prove this, it is still necessary to conduct bench tests. They will begin when a special roller test bench is ready. It will allow the test sample to reach 500 km/h speed, because the track length at EcoTechnoPark allows to accelerate only up to 100 km/h.

At EcoFest-2019, guests were able to see firsthand both the mule in operation, and a full-fledged unibus, which visited Berlin. Of course, the speed of even 100 km/h was not shown for safety reasons, but 20 km/h was demonstrated. And these are only the first steps.

Meanwhile, residents of the Arab Emirates are waiting for their own model of high-speed transport. The unibus, which you saw on August 17 at EcoFest, is a kind of “family minivan”. And for the Middle East, 20-seat unibuses are being designed with a passage through the center and even a bathroom. By analogy with the existing model, they can be compared with “regular buses”. However, they are still under development stage.

So, as you can see, we were silent for a reason. But on the other hand we have in the near future: bench tests with undercarriage system. And the plans are to expand the model range of high-speed vehicles for transportation within the global transport and information network TransNet.