Project ELAN
Project
ELAN is described in a document from Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft, dated
December, 1971. ELAN is an acronym derived from Elektronisch Gesteuertes Automatisches
Nahverkehrssystem. The document is written in technical German (beyond my translation
capabilities) and so this page contains only those most interesting pictures from this
document. So far as is know, this transit technology never got beyond the conceptual and
physical modeling stage. It is included at this website because it might be of some
historical interest as an example of a "skyhook" type technology and might also
be of interest to people currently working on the design of urban peoplemovers.
Two
types of vehicles were designed. These vehicles are passive (i.e. they contain no
propulsion equipment) and are designed for simplicity of construction.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 show how people
would be accommodated by these vehicles. Some ride facing forward, others have their backs
to the direction of movement. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the component
modular parts of the vehicles and indicate that they could be easily manufactured and
assembled.
Figure 5 shows
how the seats can be removed and Figure 6 shows how the
vehicles can be quickly converted into a cargo-carrying configuration. Figure 7 shows a
cross-section of a two-way ELAN guideway.
Last modified: April 12, 1999