The Hyperloop concept is sound, but it faces many challenges
The basis of the hyperloop transport system is a capsule that travels at nearsupersonic speeds in a sealed tube.
Arthur Kantrowitz believed this was impossible.
A renowned American physicist and engineer, his Kantrowitz limit equation demonstrated that an object moving through a tube would eventually meet such resistance from the build-up of air pressure that it would rapidly be reduced to a crawl.
Yet hyperloop projects are being proposed all over the world, including two in the UAE. Los Angeles-based Hyperloop One proposes a link between Abu Dhabi and Dubai that would transport passengers at 1,200 kilometres an hour between the two cities in 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, another American company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), sponsored by Sheikh Falah bin Zayed, is working on a proposed link between Al Ain and the capital, with a journey time of nine minutes.
Both companies exist because of pioneering research by Elon Musk, the South African billionaire behind Tesla Motors and Space X. It was Mr Musk who proposed a simple workaround to the Kantrowitz limit; a compressor fan mounted at the front of the vehicle that would suck in the air before it builds up and expel it to the rear.
Inside the tube, which would be pressurised to a near vacuum, 28-seat passenger cars, floating on a cushion of air, would be propelled forward by external linear induction motors placed at approximately every 112 kilometres along the network.
Mr Musk had bowed out of the hyperloop game by 2014, but not before publishing the results of his research in a 58page open-source document, allowing others to continue his work.
Hyperloop One, which retains a close connection with Mr Musk through its senior executives, speaks of having the first passengers travel between Abu Dhabi and Dubai by 2021.
HTT has secured an agreement Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipal Affairs and Transportation and says it will need three years once final approval is given.
For either to succeed, major obstacles must be overcome. Some of these are scientific. At present the closest thing to a working hyperloop is a 500metre track built by Hyperloop One in the Nevada Desert. This week the company announced it had carried out a successful test in a vacuum, although so far only at a speed of 112kph.
The verdict of John Hansman, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is that in the underlying principles of hyperloop travel, “I don’t see anything that violates fundamental laws of physics”.
Dr Hansman has other concerns and predicts that the amount of energy a system would consume would make it economically unviable.
The cost issue has been raised by others. While Mr Musk priced a 600km track between Los Angeles and San Francisco at US$6 billion (Dh22.03bn), some estimates put it closer to $100bn. On that basis, ticket prices would be prohibitive.
Others have predicted that vibrations in the tube would buffet passengers, while the rapid acceleration and deceleration could induce nausea.
All these are unknowns that will have to be answered with years of research, testing and safety certification. A similar process will have to be gone through for the projects’ commercial viability. Is this achievable in the timescale envisaged? This is the reality behind the hyperloop hype.