Hyperloop One plan would take travelers from NYC to D.C. in 20 minutes
Future New Yorkers may travel between cities faster than ever before. Hyperloop One–the California-based tech company whose transportation concept was first proposed by Elon Musk– revealed its plan for a high-speed tube that could take passengers from NYC to D.C. in just 20 minutes, reports NBC New York (by comparison, Amtrak’s Acela Express currently takes a little more than three hours). Travelers would board magnetically levitating pods that move by electric propulsion and travel at more than 700 miles per hour. This would connect 80 percent of the country, making a cross-country trip just about five hours long. According to the company, nearly 83 million people would benefit from this hyperloop between our nation’s capital and the Big Apple.
Time comparison of Hyperloop and other modes of transport from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Passengers and cargo are loaded into a pod which gradually accelerates with electric propulsions through a low-pressure tube. Then, the pod lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and moves at airline speeds. This week, the company finished installing the tube on its 1,640-foot-long “DevLoop” at their outdoor lab, which is located in the desert outside of Las Vegas.
Hyperloop One launched a competition in May of last year to find groups with proposals for using the company’s transport technology in their own regions. These proposed routes include Los Angeles-San Diego, Miami-Orlando and Seattle-Portland. The longest route proposed in the challenge ran from Cheyenne-Houston, traversing four states and traveling 1,152 miles. By the end of 2017, Hyperloop One plans to hire a team of 500 engineers, fabricators, scientists and others to make the hyperloop tube a reality. The company’s goal is to begin moving cargo by 2020 and passengers by 2021.
[Via NBC New York]
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Photos via Hyperloop One
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What does traveling for an extended period of time within a strong magnetic field do to your body …and even to your mind? Perhaps the designers should get some definite answers on that point before proceeeding with their grand schemes…
How are they going to handle the expansion and contraction of the tube due to heat? the expansion of metal is insignificant over short distances but any bridge-maker will tell you that over long distances, even as short as a half mile, heat becomes a huge issue.