Hyperloop One Conducts First Full Systems Test But Only Traveled 70MPH (jalopnik.com)

Thelasko shares a report from Jalopnik about Hyperloop One's first full systems Hyperloop test: In the test, Hyperloop says its vehicle traveled the first portion of a track using magnetic levitation in a vacuum environment, and reached 70 mph. It's a significant leap past the company's test a year ago, which sent a sled down a track for a grand total of two seconds. And while that's not the lighting-fast speed that Hyperloop Ones says its futurist transport system could go, the company says this test -- conducted privately on May 12 -- is only Phase 1. Hyperloop One's in the process of the next phase, now aiming for 250 mph. "By achieving full vacuum, we essentially invented our own sky in a tube, as if you're flying at 200,000 feet in the air," said Shervin Pishevar, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Hyperloop One. "For the first time in over 100 years, a new mode of transportation has been introduced. Hyperloop is real, and it's here now."

Comments

Re:It's Here Now

[cayenne8]

Hmm...I"m wondering, even with liberal use of "eminent domain", it seems that digging, or above ground install and connection of this type of thing, would be quite difficult to do nationwide in the US....and that's just the private property and existing city problems. The wildly varied and often difficult terrain across the US would pose a lot of problems putting together a system like this, that requires what I'm guessing is pretty complex and massive equipment to put tube, and keep power and vacuum on such a system.

While it sounds really cool.....I'm wondering of the practicality of it in becoming anywhere near a mass transit system.

Re: It's Here Now Until ...

[Derekloffin]

You're right... you'd have about 15 seconds of useful consciousness and death in a minute or two, and you're not going to get rescued in that minute or two, sorry. But don't worry, this isn't a very likely scenario. Far more likely is the vacuum of the tube being compromised, in which case the on rush of air will hit you at approximately mach 1 and you'll likely be dead instantly as it is basically like getting hit by a bomb's shock wave. Worse case you survive long enough to realize you're now the bullet in a very large gun that is capped at either end... and then you die on impact.

This is not a new idea

[Topwiz]

In the 1973 Gene Roddenberry movie 'Genesis II' they have an underground transportation system very much like the hyperloop. This is also the movie where Mariette Hartley famously has two belly buttons. When she appeared on Star Trek the censors wouldn't allow her to show a belly button so Gene decided to give her two as a middle finger to the earlier censors.

Scramjet

[Billy the Mountain]

If the atmosphere in the tube is the same as at 200,000 feet, that is enough air to operate a scramjet which is an air-breathing supersonic combustion engine. Although it may seem backwards to do this, it may be an option assuming the vehicle can go fast enough for the engine's operational constraints. The evacuated tube should also be of interest to NASA as an alternate means of testing scramjet technology.

Re: It's Here Now

[apoc.famine]

My major issue with the hyperloop is that it overlaps with planes and trains in all the wrong ways. It requires a fixed path like a train, but that path requires an order magnitude more materials and engineering to construct. Why not just lay rail? It is as fast as a plane, but constrained to its path in the tube. Planes can go to any airport, as needed. And that infrastructure is already built, along with the connection infrastructure to get people to/from the air hub.
 
It would be far, far cheaper to just lay high speed rail instead of the hyperloop. All the tech is available, well tested, and much closer to mass production. If you can't do HSR/bullet train and turn a profit, I don't see how you do so with the hyperloop. Sure, it's far, far faster, but the design, manufacturing, testing, certification, and implementation cost of what is essentially a giant pipeline with a flying submarine in it vs HSR is so much higher I can't see the ROI making the hyperloop worth it.