Technology firm Hyperloop One has successfully tested its futuristic transport system for the first time. The system of tubes and pods for passengers and cargo is powered by electric coils underneath the craft.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J. Locher
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The future of high-speed transportation may have proven itself on Wednesday following the successful test of so-called "hyperloop" technology in the Nevada desert. The triumph for the high-speed propulsion system was the first of its kind, according to the company developing it.
Los Angeles-based tech firm Hyperloop One is only one of several companies experimenting with a transport system composed of passenger pods zipping through giant vacuum tubes. But the company, owned by Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, has made the biggest strides so far in realizing its founder's futuristic vision.
"Technology development testing can be a tricky beast," said Hyperloop One co-founder Brogan BamBrogan ahead of the test. "You never know on a given day if things are going to work exactly like you want."
The prototype pod, set along a train track, was then rocketed to 105 mph by copper coils shooting electricity into the bottom of it. The test was modest, however, compared to the company's ambitions: A track stretching from Los Angeles to San Francisco, carrying passengers and cargo at speeds of 750 mph (1,200 kph). Musk has already raised eyebrows by suggesting the project would only cost $6 billion, a mere one-tenth of California's planned high-speed railway.
Critics: Hyperloop is a pipe dream
Skeptics have argued, however, that the cost would not only be much higher - but that the real word challenges of construction make a functional hyperloop system practically impossible.
"The hyperloop might be promising, but it's still unproven and just an idea. High-speed rail is a proven technology that's been in use around the world for decades," said Lisa Marie Alley of the California High Speed Rail Authority.
Hyperloop One remained confident in the face of criticism, however. On Wednesday, company CEO Rob Lloyd predicted that hyperloop technology would be carrying cargo by 2019 and passengers by 2021.
es/sms (AFP, Reuters)
Building the world's fastest train
Inventors in Nevada have taken the first steps towards developing a new train. But the group behind the Hyperloop can expect some competition.
Image: Hyperloop Technologies
777 miles per hour
Hyperloop is the name of Elon Musk's newest idea. The founder of the airspace company SpaceX and electric car manufacturer Tesla wants to link San Francisco and Silicon Valley with the Central Valley and the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The train resembles a pneumatic tube, reminding some of the mail-sorting cylinders once used in office buildings.
Image: picture-alliance/SpaceX via AP/P. Larson
A near vacuum
The Hyperloop, however, is not a real pneumatic tube, but rather an environment of reduced air pressure. A total vacuum would not be possible to implement, engineers say. But regular air pumps can reduce the pressure in the tube sufficiently to enable train travel with very little air resistance and friction.
Image: Hyperloop Technologies
Maybe take to the water?
The tunnel could theoretically also go under water. This would certainly make building permits far easier to obtain. As of now, the project has hardly left the drawing board. But the company Hyperloop Technologies has started preparing a test area near Las Vegas in Nevada to buildmodels - on a smaller-than-life scale.
Image: Hyperloop Technologies
Hovering on air
The slim Hyperloop vehicles are supposed to hover on air cushions, which they generate themselves by moving at speed of up to 777 miles per hour (1250 kilometers per hour). Some have doubts, however. How will passengers cope with the extreme acceleration? If travelers get sick, how would first aid reach them in those small cabins?
Image: picture-alliance/SpaceX via AP/P. Larson
A subway for Switzerland
The idea of a partial vacuum tube is not entirely new. Swiss engineers also favor the idea for their futuristic SwissMetro project, a tube under the main metropolitan centers of the mountainous country. Those trains are also supposed to hover - not on air, but on an electromagnetic cushion. Nor would they be expected to reach Hyperloop speeds. 500 kilometers per hour should do the trick.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Swissmetro
'It's like taking off in a plane'
Select test passengers in Japan can already experience something similar to the SwissMetro plans aboard the Japanese Maglev magnetic train. This train even becomes more stable the faster it travels. The first public line between Tokyo and Nagoya is planned for 2027 - again at 500 kilometers per hour.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The floating king
Maglev is short for magnetic levitation, a physical concept by which an object is suspended using a superconductor greater or equal to the gravitational force of that object. By floating instead of rolling, friction is more or less completely done away with, which makes for far less wear and tear on the vehicle.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/Yomiuri Shimbun
Get me to the airport - fast!!!
The Shanghai Maglev Train is currently the world's fastest train in operation. It uses the same magnetic levitation technology as its Japanese counterpart and boasts an operational speed of 430 kilometers per hour. The train takes passengers from just outside central Shanghai to the airport - a journey of 19 miles - in just eight minutes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Invented in Germany
The Shanghai Transrapid was built by Siemens and ThyssenKrupp. The original Transrapid traveled for the first time in 1983 on the test track pictured above in Northern Germany. There were several concepts for building such a line in Germany, but the groups did not get the necessary political backing. The main reason: Traditional trains with wheels on tracks were getting faster, too.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Wheels, not cushions
Germany instead opted for Velaro high-speed trains from Siemens. They can be easily used on existing railroad tracks. The ICE set a speed record of 405 kilometers per hour in 1988, but in practice they don't travel faster than 300. Today, Velaro trains are real export hits: They serve passengers in Spain, China, Russia, the UK and Turkey.
Image: imago/imagebroker
Beijing to Shanghai at 380
Velaro trains do away with locomotives. They instead use multiple motorized units located under each axle. The fastest of them travels in China: During a trial run in 2010, the CRH 380A hit a speed of 484 kilometers per hour. Commuters between Beijing and Shanghai nowadays have to settle for an operational speed of 380.
Image: imago/UPI Photo
TGV - mother of all high speed trains
The fastest of all traditional wheeled trains remains the French TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse). It started regular operations back in 1981. The latest version - the AGV - hit a top speed of 572 kilometers per hour back in 2007. Normal TGV trains generally don't break 320. TGV-type trains can be found in Germany, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland and Italy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Sasso
A high-speed pioneer: Japan
Even before France, Japan launched a real high speed train: For the olympic summer games of 1964 in Tokyo, the Shinkansen started operations - then travelling at 215 kilometers per hour. Today the trains reach a maximum operational speed of 320.
Image: cc-by-sa/D A J Fossett
But it's not just speed that counts
Germany's Deutsche Bahn's newest Generation of ICE-4 trains are actually slower than their predecessor: 250 kilometers per hour rather than 300. They are considerably more energy efficient, though.
