Virgin Hyperloop hosts first human ride on new transport system

By Eric M. Johnson

 

Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel, its Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience are seen inside a Virgin Hyperloop pod during testing at their DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 8, 2020. VIRGIN HYPERLOOP/via REUTERS

 

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop has completed the world's first passenger ride on a super high-speed levitating pod system, the company said on Sunday, a key safety test for technology it hopes will transform human and cargo transportation.

 

Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel, its Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, reached speeds of up to 107 miles per hour (172 km per hour) at the company's DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company said.

 

"I had the true pleasure of seeing history made before my very eyes," said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Virgin Hyperloop and Group Chairman and Chief Executive of DP World.

 

Los Angeles-based Hyperloop envisions a future where floating pods packed with passengers and cargo hurtle through vacuum tubes at 600 miles an hour (966 kph) or faster.

 

Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop has completed the world's first passenger ride on a super high-speed levitating pod system, the company said on Sunday, a key safety test for technology it hopes will transform human and cargo transportation. Bryan Wood reports.

 

In a hyperloop system, which uses magnetic levitation to allow near-silent travel, a trip between New York and Washington would take just 30 minutes. That would be twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train.

 

The company has previously run over 400 tests without human passengers at the Nevada site.

 

The test comes a month after Reuters first reported that Virgin Hyperloop picked the U.S. state of West Virginia to host a $500 million certification center and test track that will serve as a proving ground for its technology.

 

The company is working toward safety certification by 2025 and commercial operations by 2030, it has said.

 

Canada's Transpod and Spain's Zeleros also aim to upend traditional passenger and freight networks with similar technology they say will slash travel times, congestion and environmental harm linked with petroleum-fueled machines.

 

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-10

 

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Just hope the power doesn't go out during trip...

1 hour ago, Emdog said:

Just hope the power doesn't go out during trip...

that would suck....or not

I sometimes wish that I had been born maybe 40 years later, I'm gonna miss riding all this new stuff & the exciting tech coming along ???? ????

13 hours ago, webfact said:

floating pods packed with passengers and cargo hurtle through vacuum tubes

Similar technology used by the UK engineer I.K. Brunel on the South Devon Atmospheric (vacuum) railway in 1848?????

 

7 minutes ago, Burma Bill said:

Similar technology used by the UK engineer I.K. Brunel on the South Devon Atmospheric (vacuum) railway in 1848?????

 

Indeed, That system failed because rats developed a taste for the greased leather flaps which sealed the vacuum tubes  which drew the train along. I imagine that the bearded messiah of public transport has thought that one through!????

4 hours ago, Emdog said:

Just hope the power doesn't go out during trip...

 

I always worry when I fly, because if  the plane runs out of fuel...

I'd be stuck up there all night.

 

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by faraday

2 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I sometimes wish that I had been born maybe 40 years later, I'm gonna miss riding all this new stuff & the exciting tech coming along ????????

Maglev trains have been around for a while. First one was at Birmingham (UK) airport in 1984 - it was rubbish.

The best example is the Shanghai Transrapid which is still the worlds fastest scheduled train and has been for the last 16 years. It reaches 268mph regularly.

Not so new technology eh?

1 hour ago, Burma Bill said:

Similar technology used by the UK engineer I.K. Brunel on the South Devon Atmospheric (vacuum) railway in 1848?????

 

 

No.

 

No comparison really.

 

Brunels system was for moving the unit.

 

Atmospheric railway - Wikipedia

• 2.8.5 Problems with the slot closure

 

The vacuum in the hyperloop is to create a frictionless environment and plays no part in moving the unit.

 

Hyperloop - Wikipedia

"Hyperloop is a sealed tube or system of tubes with low air pressure through which a pod may travel substantially free of air resistance or friction."

 

It doesn't have an intermittently opened, leaky, linear aperture running the length of the tube.

 

It is also not like one of these systems:

 

Pneumatic tube - Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by Enoon

47 minutes ago, faraday said:

 

I always worry when I fly, because if  the plane runs out of fuel...

I'd be stuck up there all night.

 

Don't worry.  They always have enough fuel to get close to the crash site.

35 minutes ago, mrfill said:

Maglev trains have been around for a while. First one was at Birmingham (UK) airport in 1984 - it was rubbish.

The best example is the Shanghai Transrapid which is still the worlds fastest scheduled train and has been for the last 16 years. It reaches 268mph regularly.

Not so new technology eh?

Didn't know that, so why all the fuss? 

 

Looking on wiki, it was the Germans who invented it in 1997 !

 

 

29 minutes ago, faraday said:

Didn't know that, so why all the fuss? 

 

Looking on wiki, it was the Germans who invented it in 1997 !

 

 

Or British engineer Eric Laithwaite in the late 40s according to this version of wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#Development

1 hour ago, mrfill said:

Maglev trains have been around for a while. First one was at Birmingham (UK) airport in 1984 - it was rubbish.

The best example is the Shanghai Transrapid which is still the worlds fastest scheduled train and has been for the last 16 years. It reaches 268mph regularly.

Not so new technology eh?

Only 268 mph, obviously you didn't read the article, they are targeting 600 mph + and another team are looking at 1000 mph, that's what I'm talking about, sheesh please try to keep up or at least read the article before you hit the keyboard so you can at least be informed.

5 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Only 268 mph, obviously you didn't read the article, they are targeting 600 mph + and another team are looking at 1000 mph, that's what I'm talking about, sheesh please try to keep up or at least read the article before you hit the keyboard so you can at least be informed.

Yes indeed they are 'envisioning a future' where their pods do 600 mph or perhaps 6000mph or even the speed of light. No hint when this envisioned future is likely to arrive, just the twinkling in a PR man's eye.

Fact is they have achieved 107mph with a few select passengers on a special test train. The Shanghai train has been running regular public services on the same technology for the last 16 years at a speed over twice what virgin has achieved. They have achieved 311mph in testing. The hype from Virgin is way over the top.

Tube transport ... 

Hyperloop will fail for both technical and economic reasons.  How do you maintain a vacuum in a tube that runs hundreds of miles?  What about when there is a rupture (from a gunshot, for example) and air rushes in at the speed of sound possibly killing everyone?  How do you construct expansion joints for a vacuum tube?  How do you recover the pod if it has a breakdown.

 

Snake oil.

21 hours ago, faraday said:

Didn't know that, so why all the fuss? 

 

Looking on wiki, it was the Germans who invented it in 1997 !

 

 

 

The fuss is about an advance in the practical application of 2 realities, frictionless movement in a vacuum and Maglev motive power, to create a 3rd, previously unattainable reality.........Hypersonic terrestrial travel.

 

Many notable developments are the result of that "formula".

 

It could be described as the formula for intelligence.........the ability to take 2 pieces of established knowledge/data and come up with something new.

 

The majority of minds can hold considerable amounts of data, but not all are able to "transform" it.

 

Using previously established ideas/principals in no way diminishes the achievements of those who "connect" them and effect "transfomation".

 

It is the reason that mankind has come so far:

 

 "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."

                                                                                           Isaac Newton, 1675.

 

 

Edited November 11, 20205 yr by Enoon

13 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Hyperloop will fail for both technical and economic reasons.  How do you maintain a vacuum in a tube that runs hundreds of miles?  What about when there is a rupture (from a gunshot, for example) and air rushes in at the speed of sound possibly killing everyone?  How do you construct expansion joints for a vacuum tube?  How do you recover the pod if it has a breakdown.

 

Snake oil.

 

 "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."

                                                                                          William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin - Wikipedia

 

 

11 hours ago, Enoon said:

 

 "No balloon and no aeroplane will ever be practically successful."

                                                                                          William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin - Wikipedia

 

 

 

So, we can hardly wait for jet packs, cold fusion, speed reading, learning a new language during sleep, and hundreds of tests performed on a drop of blood, since all ideas are good ideas.