TGV hits 357 mph

[croyde]

Not sure when this happened but I stumbled across this clip from French TV and the bit when it goes under the bridge about 3 mins in is amazing. Something that big travelling at nearly jet liner speed at ground level.

Also what type of aircraft is following it for the overhead TV pictures. Surely helicopters don't go that fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8skXT5NQzCg

[patmahe]

Hadn't seen that before, looks incredible, particularly as you said under the bridge. I'm surprised they allowed the press to be standing on the bridge directly above the train, if anything had gone wrong it could have been catastrophic.

Either way it looks fantastic

[Pwig]

i like the fact steve davis was driving

[scubadude]

As it says in the info panel with the clip-
The french TGV (train à grande vitesse, High speed train) sets a new conventional rail record, with a speed of 574.8 kmh. The record was established on April 3,2007, surpassing the previous record of 1990 (515.3kmh). The train is a special tgv, named "V150" (for 150 met/sec, ca. 540kmh)with a souded-up engine (25,000hp, like two F1 starting grids), and larger wheels.

[croyde]

Cheers.

Lately YouTube has opened up a much bigger view screen so I forgot to scroll down to look.

[dr_gn]

Ahh makes you proud to be Brit...oh hang on, it's French, and things like that would never happen over here.

[annodomini2]

dr_gn said:

Ahh makes you proud to be Brit...oh hang on, it's French, and things like that would never happen over here.

No we came up with designs for a 600mph maglev, which the british government said no to and gave it all to the Germans and Chinese.

[Nick_F]

Can we even lay lines that consistently?

[Talksteer]

croyde said:

Not sure when this happened but I stumbled across this clip from French TV and the bit when it goes under the bridge about 3 mins in is amazing. Something that big travelling at nearly jet liner speed at ground level.

Also what type of aircraft is following it for the overhead TV pictures. Surely helicopters don't go that fast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8skXT5NQzCg

The aircraft following was a French business jet, most civil airliners are only rated for 350knots IAS so in theory would not be able to follow the plane if it went much faster.