A "Hyperloop" system using car-sized capsules in air-free
tubes connecting major cities could revolutionize high-speed travel - if it's
ever built.
A sketch of the Hyperloop capsule in operation
with passengers on board. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Monday unveiled
a concept for a transportation system he says would make a 640 kilometre trip
in half the time it takes an airplane. The "Hyperloop" system would
employ a large tube with capsules inside that would float on air at a speed of
more than 1,120 kilometres per hour.
By: JUSTIN PRITCHARD The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES—Imagine strapping into a car-sized capsule and
hurtling through a tube at more than 1,120 kilometres per hour — not for the
thrill of it, but to get where you need to go.
On Monday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled a
transportation concept that he said could whisk passengers the nearly 640
kilometres between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes — half the time
it takes an airplane. If it’s ever built.
His “Hyperloop” system for travel between major cities is akin to
the pneumatic tubes that transport capsules of paperwork in older buildings. In
this case, the cargo would be people, reclining for the ride.
The system would feature a large, nearly air-free tube. Inside,
capsules would be pulled down the line by magnetic attraction.
Capsules would float on a cushion of air they create — like an air
hockey table in which the puck produces the air instead of the surface. To
minimize friction from the air that is in the tube, a powerful fan at the front
of each capsule would suck air from the front to the rear.
“Short of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course
be awesome (someone please do this), the only option for super-fast travel is
to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment,”
Musk wrote in his online proposal.
On a conference call Monday, Musk said if all goes well, it could
take seven to 10 years for the first passengers to make the journey between
California’s two biggest metro areas. He put the price tag at around $6 billion
— pointedly mentioning that would be about one-tenth the projected cost of a
high-speed rail system that California has been planning to build.
Like that bullet train, the Hyperloop didn’t take long to attract
skepticism.
Citing barriers such as mountains and cost, one transportation
expert said that while Musk’s idea is novel, it’s not a breakthrough.
“I don’t think it will provide the alternative that he’s looking
for,” said James E. Moore II, director of the transportation engineering
program at the University of Southern California.
Musk has been dropping hints about his system for more than a year
during public events, mentioning that it could never crash and would be immune
to weather.
Coming from almost anyone else, the hyperbole would be hard to
take seriously. But Musk has a track record of success. He co-founded online
payment service PayPal, electric luxury carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. and the
rocket-building company SpaceX.
Musk has said he is too focused on other projects to consider
actually building the Hyperloop, and instead would publish an open-source
design that anyone can use or modify.
That’s
still the case, he said Monday, but added that if no one steps forward he might
build a working prototype that would take three or four years.
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