We had submissions from two Soylentils on a recent high-speed demonstration by Hyperloop One.
Just weeks after Hyperloop One demonstrated a working, albeit slow, version of its levitating sled, the company has made another leap forward. This time around, the startup has successfully tested its XP-1 passenger pod, reaching speeds of up to 192 mph and levitating off the track as it accelerated.
XP-1 traveled for just over 300 meters before the brakes kicked in and it rolled to a gradual stop, hitting a top speed of 192 mph. That speed puts Hyperloop One's system a little bit ahead of Category 1 high-speed rail, which has a maximum running speed of 155mph, although it's not yet faster than Japan's bullet train.
Then again, Hyperloop One's plan is to push its pods at speeds closer to 750 mph, but that's clearly going to be tough to test in a tube that's just 500 meters long. But the milestones, slow and steady, are being met, and it's clearly a demonstration of the company's strength that it is developing its prototypes for real.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/02/hyperloop-one-first-pod-xp1-test/
For the number nuts, such as himself, your humble editor (FP), in a freshly woken daze - and assuming 300 m of acceleration, 50 m of gliding, and 150 m of deceleration - has calculated that the acceleration was at 2.5G, and the deceleration was at 5.0G, which doesn't make breakfast seem such a good idea.
[NB: That contains a factor of 2 error, as pointed out below by a careful reader, my bad -- FP.]
Today Hyperloop One claimed that its demo pod reached 192mph (310 kph) on the 500m (1/3 mile) test track that the startup built outside of Las Vegas. Hyperloop One showed off that demo pod last month—it's basically an 8.7m (28.5 ft) carbon-fiber shell on a magnetically levitating chassis.
This test run follows on a "Phase 1" test that sent a bare-bones sled down the test track at 70mph. At the time, Hyperloop One had said Phase 2 would involve getting to 250mph, but in a recent press release, the startup said that the 192mph test run this month satisfied Phase 2 development goals. Ars has reached out to Hyperloop One for clarification, and we'll update when we receive a response.
Although no media were present, Hyperloop One claims that in this most recent test, its large pod "accelerated for 300 meters and glided above the track using magnetic levitation before braking and coming to a gradual stop."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @04:08PM (3 children)
It's only faster than planes because of a limited number of people willing and able to pay. The Concorde was able to manage nearly double what the Hyperloop is aiming for and can be routed between arbitrary end points.
This is an idea that should have been killed years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @04:18PM (1 child)
The Concorde has killed people. Hyperloop hasn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 03 2017, @07:07PM
Yet.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday August 03 2017, @05:30PM
The Concorde was also far less efficient, utterly unsuitable for shorter-range hops, and a major public nuisance (which is why it was artificially restricted to too few routes to be profitable). If anything comes of the NASA "quiet supersonic" initiative that aspect may change, but even if the efficiency improves in kind, it will still remain abysmal.
Meanwhile, the efficiency of Hyperloop derivatives may eventually exceed even that of trains (currently the most efficient form of transportation besides sailboats), is far more flexible on effective route length, and may easily outpace supersonic planes over extended straight stretches, such as crossing the great plains or going underground.
It remains to be seen if it can *deliver* on those promises, but the basic concept is over a century old - it's about time we gave it a shot.
Besides, it's not your money being spent, so what do you care? Ther will *always* be something better for other people to spend their money on, and most of the time it's spent on far worse pursuits.