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The best way to push public support for maglev, says retired Grumman engineer Robert Lawrence, is to put an authentic magnetic levitation train under every Christmas tree.
Lawrence's LI Futuristic Toys Inc, or LIFT (Dix Hills), is licensed to build toys based on Grumman's proposed design of a maglev system, which at full-scale will run inter-city wheel-less vehicles levitated and propelled by electromagnetic forces along a fixed guide way at speeds of up to 300 MPH. By Christmas 1993, Lawrence said, he expects to have maglev toys--virtually the same as the real thing, but in model train dimensions--for sale in toy and hobby shops.
Grumman Corp (NYSE, Bethpage), which is heading one of four US consortiums competing for federal money to develop a maglev prototype by 1999, says LIFT's toy should help generate the public support needed to open...