Blog Hyperloop One Nearly Hits 200 MPH in First Pod Tests

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A Hyperloop One test pod reached a speed of 190 mph at the company’s vacuum tube test track. It was the first time the system had been tested with a pod – intended to carry people and cargo – not simply a sled.

The test was celebrated on the company’s blog, including a video of the test. The milestone comes after the first Hyperloop test in a vacuum environment occurred in May.

“Farther and faster was our mantra for this phase,” says the blog post by co-founders Josh Giegel and Shervin Pishevar,  and our XP-1 test pod went 4.5 times farther and three times faster than our initial runs in May. The XP-1 went as fast as 310 km per hour (190 mph) and reached a maximum distance of 437 meters (1,433 feet) in DevLoop. That’s using only 300 meters of stator for propulsion. With an additional 2,000 meters of stator, we would have hit 1,100 km per hour or 700 mph.”

The blog explained that the XP-1 performed as designed, handling high speeds and levitating in a vacuum tube depressurized to the equivalent of flying at 200,000 feet above sea level. The pods measure 28.5-foot-long and 8.9-foot-tall.

In a video accompanying the blog post, Hyperloop One asks the viewer to listen for “the sound of the future of public transportation.”[/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/jjv7bB9hy0k” video_title=”1″][vc_column_text]Obviously, Hyperloop One has a great deal of engineering and testing ahead to reach its target of 650 mph, let alone deploying the system at scale. There will be regulatory challenges, including negotiations with local authorities; and technical, as can be predicted when the aim is to perfect a radical new vacuum system for transportation. But, the company seems to be enthusiastic about its early tests, as are government officials open to innovative transit ideas.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

 

[Ben W]

IMHO, Hyperloop doesn't need any more velocity. The curve radius for the current proposed speed is huge!

My main point was not to increase the velocity, but to improve the efficiency (by reducing drag) at the current velocity. Adding a bit of hydrogen or helium might accomplish this with very little downside, and without having to change the pod design or track implementation much at all.

If I were designing this system, I'd go for much lower speed, say around 200-250 mph. That might well allow the system to use existing highway rights of way in many cases. Land acquisition and the whole approval process for new rights of way is a gigantic problem for any kind of mass transit.

Having portions of the route at lower speed is inevitable; significant fractions of the original LA - SF route (near the start and endpoints) were designed for ~300mph. But once 300mph is achieved, upping the speed to ~600mph on straight stretches is technically straightforward. The economic value of the route increases quite a lot with speed, so it probably makes sense to pay extra for the straighter right-of-way wherever possible. The acquisition costs are much lower on rural stretches anyway, and if the Boring Company pans out, much of it could be made perfectly straight with no land-acquisition costs at all. Perhaps this even includes stretches near the endpoints.