Testing to begin on super-fast Hyperloop
The Hyperloop could become a reality, taking passengers hundreds of miles in minutes. Image: Hyperloop Technologies.
It’s not just a dream. The Hyperloop is quickly becoming a reality.
A Los Angeles-based company, Hyperloop Technologies Inc., announced Dec. 7 that it planned to begin testing the futuristic concept in 2016. The idea is to build a tube, and within it lightning-fast pods will shoot along on a bed of air.
“Our ‘Kitty Hawk’ moment refers to our first full system, full scale, full-speed test. This will be over 2 miles of tube with a controlled environment and inside that tube we will levitate a pod and accelerate it to over 700 mph,” wrote Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop Technologies, in a blog post on the company’s website.
The propulsion open-air test will be done at a 50-acre site in the Apex Industrial Park in the city of North Las Vegas, Nevada, the blogpost said. The company's goal is to "deliver a commercially viable, fully operational Hyperloop system by 2020."
If the Hyperloop becomes a reality, it would change everything – making it literally possible to live in one city and work in another far away.
At 700 mph, for example, passengers could conceivably go from Atlanta to New York City (an 879-mile trip) in approximately one hour and 15 minutes. The trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco (381 miles) would take about a half hour.
Conceived by Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, the Hyperloop was proposed in 2013. (See the proposal on the SpaceX website.) Musk is not affiliated with Hyperloop Technologies, however. Earlier this year, SpaceX issued a challenge to students and independent engineering teams to design and build a pod capable of carrying human passengers.
Related:
SpaceX contest prods "Hyperloop"
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