The future of transport? Inside Virgin Hyperloop where passengers will travel at 750mph aboard levitating magnetic pods 'by 2027'
Newly released photos show the construction of Hyperloop – the high-speed vacuum train that promises to hurtle customers along at up to 750 miles/hour (1,200 kph).
Virgin Hyperloop, which is one of the companies constructing the ambitious project worldwide, gave Reuters a tour of its test site near Las Vegas.
Photos show its 1,640 foot-long white metal tube that sits at the base of the mountains, constructed in the Nevada desert just outside of the city. It's where the firm is developing the technology for passenger pods that will travel through almost air-free vacuum tunnels using magnetic levitation.
Virgin Hyperloop co-founder Josh Giegel and fellow staff member Sara Luchian rode a pod along the massive white tube in November. 'It will feel like an aircraft at take-off and once you're at speed,' said Giegel, co-founder and chief executive of Virgin Hyperloop, which counts Richard Branson's Virgin Group among its partners.
'You won't even have turbulence because our system is basically completely able to react to all that turbulence.
'Think noise-cancelling but bump-cancelling, if you will.'
The system uses electric propulsion, with passive magnetic levitation creating low pressure within the tube, which is in near-vacuum conditions.
The pods within the tube network will seat 28 passengers and could be customised for long and short distances, and for freight. A hyperloop trip between New York and Washington would take just 30 minutes, which is twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train. Source
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