When and by whom was the Maglev invented?

Although this idea was originally proposed over a century ago, it was not possible at that time to generate the high electric currents required to create enough strong magnetic fields to make it happen. Two physicists, Gordon Danby and James Powell, got together at Brookhaven National Laboratory and started working in this field. The duo took over the patent for the magnetic rail train technology in 1968, and by 1979, participants at the transportation fair held in Hamburg, Germany were able to take a short test drive on the Transrapid maglev train.

James R. Powell was an American physicist, notable – together with Gordon Danby – for his work on superconducting Maglev, for which he shared the Franklin Institute "Medal 2000 for Engineering". He was a Director of the MAGLEV 2000 of Florida Corporation and Danby Powell Maglev Technology Corporation. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering in 1953 from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and his Sc.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958. He joined Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in 1956 where he became a tenured Senior Nuclear Engineer. He retired in late 1996. Powell passed on May 23, 2019.

The maglev train needs a magnetic tape to be able to move, and the wagons slide on these tapes, so to speak, without any physical contact with the tapes. This progression occurs when the train is pulled as a result of the change in the poles of the electromagnets. Magnetic rail trains can reach extremely high speeds, since the only friction that occurs during progress is air resistance. The change on poles can result in very high acceleration effect and also the slope on magnetic rails can be much more variable compared to normal rails. For this reason, cutters and fillers are not needed to slow down the train.

Despite all these positive aspects, maglev trains also have negative aspects. For example, the production of magnetic rails is an extremely expensive process, and magnetic rail trains cannot switch on normal rails while they are in motion. In order to provide this transition, a magnetic rail system can be laid in the middle of the rails that are already laid, but this transition must be installed by calculating very well.

Maglev trains were first used commercially in the UK in 1984 to connect Birmingham Airport and the nearby railway station. Another system in China connects Shanghai and Pudong International Airport. However, the success of the TGV trains in France and the high speeds they can reach have somewhat overshadowed the development of magnetic rail train technology.