Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. (CAC) of China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) disclosed on Sunday that China's first home-made high-speed maglev train, which runs at a speed of 500km per hour, with independent intellectual property right will be put for the first trial run on the Shanghai testing line in July this year.

CM1 "dolphin" high-speed maglev train, a highly focused hi-tech project of China's 863 Program, commenced component production on September 29, 2005. This train has a designed speed of 500km per hour and can carry 90 passengers. Its main components include the bodywork, levitated guidance braking control, power network, diagnostic control, positioning speed testing, magnetic device, air passage, air conditioning, illumination and escape systems. As this maglev train will go at a high speed without touching the rail, it is also called "zero altitude aircraft" by insiders of the industry.

Maglev train is currently the fastest ground passenger transportation vehicle in the world and a new type of vehicle of high technology content and high speed which is nicknamed "surface aircraft." At present, only Germany, Japan and other few countries are able to design and produce such trains. CAC, a famous aircraft manufacturer in China, is the only aeronautical manufacturing enterprise that has entered the maglev transportation arena in the country presently.

CAC, the sole fundraiser for the development and production of maglev train components, possesses complete independent intellectual property rights of this project. As the first aeronautical manufacturing enterprise to have entered this field in western China, CAC will become the technical support base of China's maglev transportation in the western regions.

(Chinanews February 13, 2006)