There is a new way we might be able to travel from one large city to another and it will be via one of the fastest tube style railway systems. This new transportation system is currently called the Hyperloop One and it’s in the very early stages of design and testing to give us a way to travel at much higher rates of speed. This system, if approved and installed, is set at the goal of being able to travel at a rate as high as 700 mph which would make the trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas a ride of only twenty minutes.
Recently Hyperloop One setup a test track outside of Las Vegas and tested a sled that uses electric power only for the propulsion of the vehicle and this sled was able to run at nearly 300 mph on the track. The acceleration of this sled brought it to nearly 2.5 Gs on the track that eventually ran to the sand pit that was designed to slow it down. This may not sound like much at all, but you have to think about how many of the inventions we have in the world have been created.
Even though this sled seems extremely primitive in nature there is hope that the company will have a fully functional series of track and tubes that will be at least a quarter of a mile long by the end of 2016. the focus of this recent test was to have the propulsion system tested and make a run that would at least let us see just how fast this sled could travel on a track meant to avoid friction and be powered only by electricity which takes it in a fast and straight run to be the starting point for the next test and development of the system.
Not only does this system use electricity, it also uses repelling magnets that help to create the lack of friction between the sled and the track. In this test the sled actually weighed in at 1,500 pounds and the magnets were able to push the sled fast enough to reach sixty mph in only 1.1 seconds. This is a levitation system that worked perfectly and will hopefully be able to give us a way to reach some of the places we need to go by using a system that won’t require gasoline or fuel, just electricity.
If the Hyperloop One is able to be used for short runs at first, such as a trip from LA to Las Vegas, there’s no telling how this system of transportation could eventually improve our ability to travel the country and eventually the rest of the world without the use of airplanes. While this is certainly a long ways off, this does make a great possibility for us to enjoy and watch as it is developed. The Hyperloop One system will have to take into account the effects of the system on actual passengers before we can get to the point where it’s used for public travel, but just the idea of having a system that could travel at 7000 mph is amazing.