One of the most annoying things when traveling is the train station-airport journey.
Very often the scene is more or less this: dragging a suitcase with a limp wheel for hundreds of meters, sunglasses falling, the camera entangling in the sweater and the phone ringing. Not to mention when you have to get rid of all these things at the airport controls and then regain possession of them two minutes later making it even harder.
But what if the train took passengers directly to the runway? It would be very convenient.
What if the same train took off? It would be brilliant.
The FLYING TRAIN: it puts on wings and becomes an airplane
# Link & Fly: the prototype of the flying train
It’s called “Link & Fly” and it’s the new flying train prototype presented by the French company Akka Technologies which is worth 1.3 billion dollars.
Defining this as a flying train is not wrong, in fact the Link & Fly can in fact act as both a train and an airplane.
It is a plane that once landed, thanks to the detachable wings, can turn into a convoy that travels on normal tracks but it is also a train that, once the wings are added, takes flight.
The train-aircraft will be able to carry 162 passengers, and the seats can be moved to carry goods. With wings and engines it will have a wingspan of about 49 meters, 34 meters long and 8 meters high.
# From the station to the airport without getting off
When traveling, one of the most uncomfortable things is having to make the journey from the station to the airport with a suitcase, bags, sunglasses, newspaper and so on and so forth.
Thanks to Link & Fly this will no longer be a problem: the new flying train ready to revolutionize transport systems will pick up travelers at the station and, once it arrives at the airport, it will be “hooked” to a pair of wings. A few checks and he’ll be ready to take off.
# The convenience of the future
The goal is to facilitate the movement of passengers from their place of residence to the airport, speed up waiting times at airports and facilitate boarding.
In this way, passengers could board the train from the nearest station, arrive at the airport and leave, all this without ever getting off.
For the moment there remains the problem of security checks before boarding, which according to Akka Technology can be carried out by the staff through a scan of the passengers’ retina, during the journey to the airport.
According to the CEO of Akka, Maurice Ricci “After the electric car, the next great revolution will concern airplanes”.
Will this be the case?
ARIANNA BOTTINI
