We thought that elevator zipping us to the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower was fast, but this one in the Taipei 101 building has been named the world’s fastest by the Guinness Book of World Records. This one moves so quickly, it needs to be aerodynamically designed, roaring from the fifth floor to the 89th floor at a breakneck speed of 37.7mph. So is that treacly music they’re playing supposed to make our descent seem even faster, or magical? Ha. Enough of that. Let’s look at some pics of the elevator’s innards.
If this elevator were any faster, they’d have to strap you into a special couch like those used on the space shuttle. Going down? By the time you get to the ground from the 89th floor, your stomach will still be waiting at the top. [Sci Fi Tech]
Kevin
Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 7:30 AMI think the the speed records differentiate between the elevators in commercial buildings and those in mines. It is not uncommon for mine shaft elevators to travel at 15m/s (900m/m or 54km/h) – I went down in one this morning to a depth of about 1000m…. One of the Western Deep Levels shafts in carletonville (about an hour west of Johannesburg, South Africa) is able to descend or ascend at over 65km/h with a load of 150 people in a three level elevator or 20 tons of ore.