The world's first ship using superconducting magnetic thrusters inched across a harbor in western Japan Tuesday, the first move in a technology that could one day revolutionize sea transport.
Twenty to 30 years from now, such ships could travel noiselessly at speeds of up to 60 mph.Surrounded by heavy, propeller-driven ships of the kind that have sailed the oceans for the past 150 years, the Yamato 1 showed that, while it has the looks of a maritime thunderbird, it does not yet have the speed.
Propelled by the force of an electric current passing over a powerful magnetic field, it dawdled at about six knots as helicopters swarmed overhead filming the event.
"We are just getting out of the cradle," said Seizo Motora, chairman of a subcommittee on hull development at the Ship and Ocean Foundation, which is carrying out the project.
"There are still a lot of points we have to develop further," he told a news conference after the test run.
The foundation hopes that one day superconducting ships will streak past other ships at up to 60 mph, impossible for conventional ships that would run into hydrodynamic problems with their propellers.
The Yamato 1 is driven by two thrusters called superconducting magneto-hydrodynamic direct drives, which squirt water rather than churn it.
But, first, advances in superconductor technology are needed. Tuesday's test ended when a warning light showed the super-conducting coil used to create the magnetic field was about to fail, which engineers said was normal.
They also need to make the craft lighter and more efficent - the present 90-foot, 280-ton ship is basically a floating power station with a cockpit at the front.