A NASA Space Act company, which has developed a magnetic levitation track for personal transportation, believes that China will be its most important market.

SkyTran is headquartered at the NASA Ames Research Center near Mountain View, California. On its website, skyTrain describes its product as a "patented, high-speed, low-cost, elevated Personal Rapid Transportation (PRT) system. The skyTran network of computer-controlled, two-person 'jet-like' vehicles employs unique, state-of-the-art, SkyTran Magnetic Levitation technology. SkyTran moves passengers in a fast, safe, green, and economical manner".

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Act Agreements "enable NASA to enter into partnerships with organizations that give the agency access to a wider range of technologies and capabilities that are not part of NASA's core competency. These partnerships expand NASA's ability to meet the difficult technical challenge faced in space exploration, often at virtually no cost to the taxpayer", skyTran's website said.

Jerry Sanders, chairman and CEO of skyTran Inc, based in Mountain View, California, was in Beijing recently looking for potential partners to bring the company's transportation systems to China.

"We believe China will be skyTran's most important market; we also believe that China needs skyTran, because China is losing 10 or 15 percent of its growth of national products every year ... because its most productive people are stuck in traffic," he said, adding that skyTran's capability to move people 250 kilometers an hour will be an important solution to congestion.

He said that skyTran has completed technological demonstration systems, which were built in Israel, and everything worked well, so it is now working on commercializing the systems.

"We have many, many requests for this system all over the world, and we are working in those places where we believe we can build this system as fast as possible with the government's support," Sanders said.

"So one such place is in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and I believe we will be building a system there probably starting by the end of this year or beginning of next year," he said, adding that is there also a system in the works at a large European airport, and a number of systems progressing in India.

He said that the ideal place for a skyTran system is a new city, and China is building many new cities, or new areas, where the systems can be integrated into urban planning.

Other good locations are smaller cities, rather than major ones such as Beijing and Shanghai, that would probably be located further west or north in China, where demonstration systems can be built, Sanders said.

SkyTran is looking for Chinese companies with financial strength and knowledge of the transportation sector, or a desire and commitment to enter to the sector.

Sanders said that skyTran could be commercial in two years, and the challenges are not technological but political, and whether politicians are willing and able to commit to a new mode of transportation.

Yu Zhanfu, a principal of Roland Berger, was more conservative in his outlook for the company.

"Without being used on a large scale, whether the technology is mature or not is a question," he said. "And there are no successful cases in other countries that can prove the performance of skyTran."

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn