(via Levitating Plane-Train Gives Mass Transit a Lift | Autopia | Wired.com)

The future of mass transit may be a whole lot cooler than you think. Japanese researchers rolled into the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Shanghai with a scale model of a robotic plane-train that levitates on a cushion of air. It’s essentially a plane — complete with stubby wings, a handful of propellers and a tail — that flies perilously close to the ground.