Tag Archives: transportation

What is the ‘Hyperloop’?

What is the ‘Hyperloop’? Billionaire Elon Musk to reveal futuristic transportation idea

By Mike Wall

Smarter America

Published August 12, 2013

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    SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands next to the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted SpaceX’s Dragon capsule into orbit in December 2010. (SpaceX)

The fevered speculation about billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s mysterious “Hyperloop” transport system is about to come to an end.

Musk, the visionary behind electric-car firm Tesla and the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has said he will unveil a Hyperloop design on Monday, Aug. 12, after teasing the world about the superfast travel technology for more than a year.

The solar-powered Hyperloop would allow passengers to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes, Musk has said, meaning it must travel at speeds greater than 600 mph. The system would be cheap and convenient, he added, with tickets costing less than a seat aboard a plane or train and Hyperloop vehicles departing frequently from their various stations.

‘[It’s] a cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table.’

– Elon Musk 

Though we don’t know exactly how the Hyperloop will work or what it will look like, Musk has dropped some hints since first disclosing the concept in July 2012. For example, this past May he described the Hyperloop as a “cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table.”

Using that statement as inspiration, self-described “tinker” John Gardi drew up a design of a system that uses air to blast cars through long tubes. Gardi’s concept “is the closest I’ve seen anyone guess so far,” Musk tweeted on July 15. (See the diagram on Gardi’s Twitter page here.)

Musk has shared some other news about the project lately, revealing that he probably won’t have much time to develop the Hyperloop — at least not in the near future.

“I have to focus on core Tesla business and SpaceX business, and that’s more than enough,” Musk said Tuesday, Aug. 7, during a conference call with Tesla investors, Gizmodo reported.

During the call, Musk expressed hope that the worldwide community of engineers, inventors and tinkers can make something happen with the Hyperloop design he puts out there. But he didn’t close off the possibility of helping out in the future.

“If nothing happens for a few years, with that I mean maybe it could make sense to make the halfway path with Tesla involvement,” Musk said, according to Gizmodo. “But [what] I would say is, you shouldn’t be speculative.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/08/12/what-is-hyperloop-billionaire-elon-musk/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2bsGQEnOO

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Magnetic, levitating ‘sky trains’ may be coming to a city near you

Magnetic, levitating ‘sky trains’ may be coming to a city near you

Published August 01, 2013

FoxNews.com
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    SkyTran’s levitating transit pods will carry passengers over street traffic to their destinations. (www.skytran.us)

Flying cars may sound like something out of “The Jetsons,” but Israel’s Tel Aviv is soon set to be the first city to welcome SkyTran’s futuristic transportation trains.

The mass transit system of magnetically levitating pods was co-developed by engineers from NASA’s Ames Research Center and the privately held SkyTran company.

Plagued by heavy traffic, the city of Tel Aviv is hoping to use SkyTran’s pods in order to offer energy and environmentally-friendly alternatives to cars and buses, The Times of Israel reported.

According to the planners, “sky trains” are a cheaper and faster transportation system and will help reduce congestion and pollution.

The city of Tel Aviv recently hired US consultant company Jenkins Gales & Martinez to help speed up the process in building the SkyTran track but no official timetable has been announced.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/08/01/magnetic-levitating-sky-trains-may-be-coming-to-city-near/#ixzz2bOsZYx67

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