The blue print for the traffic route of the magnetic levitation (maglev) airplane has lately been completed in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in west China, according to sources from the local department. And Chengdu will be the first possible city in the world to have both maglev airplane production and operation lines in the near future.

Maglev plane is developed by an American university and has not been applied in any country. It is a new type of track vehicle for hi-speed transportation on land. Not touching the track, maglev plane could "fly" at a maximum speed of 500 km (311 mi)/hour.

Different from ordinary maglev train, the maglev plane must depend on track to run, but its automatic control system, apartment, satellite positioning system and other equipment are all designed according to airplane standards. It also claims stability as of a real airplane.

As reported, the project is a Sino-US cooperation for which the agreement has been signed last September. Currently, the first-phase of the project is in progress and the foreign investors will inspect the production base and operation line in Chengdu within the next few days.

(People's Daily July 2, 2002)