Hideo ShimaDied 18 Mar 1998 at age 96 (born 20 May 1901).Japanese engineer, who designed and supervised the construction of the world's first high-speed "bullet" train, linking Tokyo and Osaka. It began service at 138 mph in Oct 1964. The rail line opened a new era in land transport. (The current generation reaches 169 mph). Shima led Japan's space development programme until 1977 at Japan's National Space Development Agency. In his early career, Shima worked hard to further develop powerful steam locomotives, culminating in the wartime 2-8-2 D51 and D52 for freight and the post-war 4-6-4 C62 for passenger trains. He next developed electrical motive power distributed along the whole train length yielding higher power output on a multiple-unit train without damaging tracks and structures. |
