Inventor unveils 1300km/h Hyperloop
T SOUNDS like the stuff of science fiction. Inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled the Hyperloop, a proposed public transport system which he claims could take travellers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in half an hour. The same journey takes an hour by plane and almost six by car.
Musk, who this week published the plans for his ultrahigh-speed alternative, said it could be delivered to consumers far more cheaply than plane travel, and with the regularity of trains.
The 42-year-old South African-born tech mogul inspired Robert Downey Jr’s performance as genius industrialist Tony Stark in the movie versions of Marvel Comics’ Iron Man. He founded Paypal, the high-end electric car-maker Tesla Motors, and SpaceX, a space exploration venture. His stated aim is to establish an 80 000person colony on Mars.
Musk first mentioned the Hyperloop more than a year ago, suggesting his invention would be solar-powered, safe and reliable regardless of weather.
IHe has described the technology involved as a “cross between Concorde, a rail gun and an air hockey table”. The concept involves firing frictionless, magnetically levitated pod vehicles through a near-vacuum tunnel, reminiscent of the tube systems traditionally used to transport documents from floor to floor at office buildings and banks. Musk said the tubes would be mounted above ground on columns. The pods would move as fast as 1 300km/h, three times the speed of the world’s fastest train, the 418km/h Maglev locomotive in Shanghai, China.
He said the technology remained “extremely speculative”, and he was too preoccupied with Tesla and SpaceX to work on the Hyperloop himself. Instead, he released the plans so that other firms and interested individuals might develop and improve on them. – The Independent