This test run of Hyperloop shows people can soon travel at 700 miles an hour without taking a plane
Commercial services might be launched by 2021.
At about 700 miles per hour, Hyperloop One, the full-scale hyperloop that’s just been tested successfully, should be faster than air-travel. After all, planes typically cruise at no more than 600 miles per hour.
Hyperloop One claims it’s the first full-fledged system in the world to be tested. Co-founders Josh Giegel and Shervin Pishevar said in an interview (above) to CBS: “We take a lot of inspiration from the Wright brothers, and we wanted to show the world that it works.”
The technology involves propelling pods, with passengers seated in them, at high speeds though a specially built tube with a vaccum within it, so that resistance and friction is much lower than in the case of normal train travel.
The test sent a magnetically-levitated sled inside a tube, dubbed DevLoop, and accelerating it to 700 miles per hour in 5.3 seconds. Here is the full video.
Said Pishevar: “By achieving full vacuum, we essentially invented our own sky in a tube, as if you’re flying at 200,000 feet in the air.” The company’s goal is to have three full systems in service by 2021. Once commercialised, people will be able to travel long distances at a fraction of the time taken now.