Free Republic

If you think the lift to the top of The Shard is a long ride, spare a thought for future visitors to Dubai's Burj Azizi. The skyscraper will feature a staggering 2,071ft (631.5m) continuous elevator journey – the equivalent of 140 floors – making it one of the longest single lift rides on Earth. KONE, the company behind the technology, says a new generation of AI-powered, lightweight elevators is helping make such record-breaking journeys possible. And it said its design could one day carry passengers more than a kilometre into the sky. ‘What was once considered a futuristic vision for...

A Finnish company says that it has solved a problem that has vexed the designers of ultra-tall skyscrapers such as the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the 509-meter Taipei 101 in Taiwan – and we'll pause for a moment to let you guess what that problem might be. Ready? It's the fact that elevators are currently limited to a maximum travel distance of around 500 meters. The Burj Khalifa, in fact, has an elevator that holds the world record for the longest travel distance: 504m (1,654 feet). And what's keeping elevators from exceeding that limit? Time for another pause...