Hyperloop is real

News this week that two teams are racing to implement Hyperloop, the supersonic air levitated train that was sometimes called Elon Musk’s pipe dream.

This video by Wall Street Journal, shows how it will work with passengers riding in a tube from San Francisco to Los Angeles in as little as 35 minutes.

 

The Hyperloop is a conceptual high-speed transportation system put forward by entrepreneur Elon Musk, incorporating reduced-pressure tubes in which pressurized capsules ride on an air cushion driven by linear induction motors and air compressors. As of 2015, designs for test tracks and capsules are being developed, with construction of a full-scale prototype scheduled for 2016.

A preliminary design document was made public in August 2013, which included a suggested route running from the Los Angeles region to the San Francisco Bay Area, paralleling the Interstate 5 corridor for most of its length. Preliminary analysis indicated that such a route might obtain an expected journey time of 35 minutes, meaning that passengers would traverse the 354-mile (570 km) route at an average speed of around 598 mph (962 km/h), with a top speed of 760 mph (1,220 km/h). Cost estimates were US$6 billion for a passenger-only version, and US$7.5 billion for a version transporting passengers and vehicles.

The cost projections for the suggested California route were questioned by transportation engineers in 2013, who found the sum unrealistically low given the scale of construction and reliance on unproven technology. The technological and economic feasibility of the idea is unproven and a subject of significant debate.