The race is on to build the ‘Hyperloop’: Three firms building separate tracks to test Elon Musk’s radical transport system
Infrastructure firm has chosen to build a at SpaceX headquarters in LA
If successful, the test track will carry cargo instead of people
Two startup firms are also hoping to bring Elon Musk’s plans to market
Hyperloop is a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum that hopes to take people from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes
It’s a race befitting the goal of moving passengers and cargo at the speed of sound.
Three Southern California companies are building separate test tracks to see how well the ‘hyperloop’ transportation concept works in the real world.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk breathed life into the hyperloop in 2013, when he proposed a network of elevated tubes to transport specially designed capsules over long distances.
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Taking shape: Three Southern California companies plan to build tracks to test how well the speed-of-sound transportation concept known as the “hyperloop” works in the real world
Major plans: This undated file conceptual design file rendering provided by SpaceX shows a Hyperloop passenger transport capsule within a tube, that would zoom passenger capsules through elevated tubes
Though momentum to build a hyperloop has been growing since, the concept dates back decades.
Capsules would float on a thin cushion of air and use magnetic attraction and solar power to zoom through nearly airless tubes.
With little wind resistance, they could make the 400-mile trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco in about a half-hour.
Musk has said that while he does not plan to develop the hyperloop commercially, he wants to accelerate its development.
On Tuesday, the SpaceX rocket launching firm said global infrastructure firm AECOM would build a one-mile track at SpaceX headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport
This test track, thirty miles north of Las Vegas, will be home to Hyperloop Technologies new three-mile test track that would reach 700 mph by the end of this year
On Tuesday, his SpaceX rocket launching firm said global infrastructure firm AECOM would build a one-mile track at SpaceX headquarters near Los Angeles International Airport.
If all goes well, by summer’s end the track will host prototype capsules that emerge from a design competition this weekend at Texas A&M University.
The prototype pods would be half the size of the system that Musk envisioned and would not carry people
Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would take people at 745mph (1,200km/h) between destinations
Hyperloop s essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes
The track, which seems likely to traverse public rights of way given limited space at SpaceX headquarters, offers ‘a glimpse into the future’ of transportation, said Michael S. Burke, AECOM’s chief executive officer.
Spokesmen for AECOM and SpaceX would not discuss its cost.
Also planning tracks are two startup companies that took up Musk’s challenge to bring the technology to market.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies last week sought permits to build a full-scale prototype hyperloop line on a five-mile stretch parallel to Interstate 5 in Central California’s sprawling farm region.
A spokesman, Ben Cooke, said the company hopes to do geological surveys and map out the track in the next six months, then start building.
Passengers would sit in either individual or group pods, which would then be accelerated with magnets. Capsules carrying six to eight people would depart every 30 seconds, with tickets costing around $20 (£13) each way. Pictured is an artist’s impression of an underwater Hyperloop design
The plan is to use a hyperloop to whisk residents around a proposed development called Quay Valley, south of Kettleman City.
Preliminary estimates based on construction bids are that the hyperloop’s cost will be between $100 million and $170 million, Cooke said.
A second, similarly named company already is building an initial test track in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hyperloop Technologies Inc. says that track will be used to develop ways to propel capsules.
The company plans to build a second, full-scale loop to test a prototype, spokeswoman Meredith Kendall said.
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