Aérotrain
Aerotrén
- Date
- 1965 · confidence high
- Place
- Gometz-le-Châtel, Essonne, France
- Credited to
- Jean Bertin
- Field
- Movement
What it is
An experimental air-cushion vehicle that ran on a reinforced-concrete guideway instead of rails, developed by Jean Bertin as a high-speed alternative to conventional rail and to maglev.
What it led to
- A land speed record for a guided vehicle (over 400 km/h in 1974)
- Renewed research into hovertrains in other countries
- Cancellation of the programme in 1977 when France chose the conventional-rail TGV instead
- Preserved prototypes as landmarks of experimental rail history