A sophisticated mass transit system is being developed in the United States and may be implemented also in other countries. It looks like a train named hyperloop, a kind of electric train with a speed that even surpasses the speed of an airplane.
Not many people know what the hyperloop is. Hyperloop is a concept of super fast public transportation of the future, with a special line of giant pipes, and a compressor-driven capsule. The public vehicle concept is claimed to be capable of driving more than 1,000 kilometers per hour. The issue of hyperloop has grown since Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, was planning to realize this futuristic mode of transport as quickly as possible. Musk was willing to invest funds to build a five-kilometer hyperloop prototype, in line with the design created by the ET3 Global Alliance team since 1997.
Then what and how exactly does this hyperloop work? One of the "expensive" of the hyperloop is the construction of unconventional lines, and even arguably one of the most futuristic. These special lines are pipe-shaped with a full round cross section using steel materials. The environment inside the gigantic pipes is made close to a vacuum. This vacuum is the most important as the thin air density in the pipeline will greatly reduce the friction between the capsule and the air in the pipe. This is what makes the capsule capable of moving super fast.
Capsule as moving part, composed of several important parts of the compressor in front, the nozzle on the bottom and side of the capsule, the battery below or also in the back, as well as the center of course for the passenger or cargo space. The interesting concept is that the thin air in front of the capsule will be inhaled by the compressor, and then ejected to some parts of the capsule, especially the underside to create a layer of pressurized air so that the capsule will always be 0.5 to 1.3 millimeters from the steel pipe. In addition, pressurized air is also used as a thrust capsule by blowing it into the back side of the capsule.
With the concept as simple as that, hyperloop is claimed will be able to reach speeds up to 760 miles per hour or equivalent 1,220 km per hour. This speed exceeds the speed of commercial aircraft that their average flying speed is 900 km per hour. Not only that, the hyperloop passengers will experience an acceleration bounce up to 0.5 g or half times the acceleration of gravity, equivalent of two to three times the stroke when the aircraft take off and landing.
There are two prominent companies racing to make hyperloop. First is Hyperloop One owned by Elon Musk. The second one is Hyperloop Transportation Technologies funded in crowdfunding.
Both of them promised to do the testing soon. Hyperloop One with large capital support has built a test facility at Apex Industrial Park in Las Vegas. They have started construction for trials and are approaching countries such as Qatar and Indonesia. If this Elon Musk project is successful then this great man seems to be really going to change the world. Need more info? Feras Antoon has said something more detailed about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop One.