Futuristic Willy Wonka-style elevators go sideways and diagonally
This elevator may not burst out of a roof and fly across a city (yet). Still, the system being developed by a German company bears more than a passing resemblance to Willy Wonka's: Not only would it travel up (and up, and up) and down, it'd also move side to side and even diagonally.
A full-size prototype is expected in less than two years. It'll have to be tested, of course -- so Germans are building one of the nation's tallest towers to do so. (That's right: The mega-skyscraper is expected to function solely as an elevator lab.)
The cable-free elevator would operate by magnetic levitation, otherwise known as maglev, like the technology used for some super-fast hovering "bullet" trains.
ThyssenKrupp's system would require much less space than a traditional up-and-down cabled elevator, and would be most efficient for skyscrapers at least 1,000 feet high -- that is, roughly as tall as the Chrysler Building. It's expected to be particularly useful for builders of super-tall skyscrapers in places like China and the Middle East.
“The reality is, [elevator companies] have limited the height of buildings as an industry,” an executive of ThyssenKrupp told the Wall Street Journal.
