Status: 09.11.2020 4:05 pm

Travel at breakneck speed in a tiny capsule – that’s the point of Hyperloop technology. The first company now mastered a test drive with passengers. They ran through a 500 meter long tube in 15 seconds.

Virgin founder and billionaire Richard Branson’s “Hyperloop” transportation system has completed its first test drive with passengers. Two company employees raced a test capsule in 15 seconds through a 500-meter-long tube at the test site in the US state of Nevada. Virgin Hyperloop announced that a speed of 172 kilometers per hour had been reached. The head of the company, Branson, spoke of a “revolutionary” success.

The company had previously made around 400 unmanned trips in the test tube, which is ten kilometers long. Thanks to the lack of air resistance, high speeds can be achieved in the vacuum tube. The transport capsules for the passengers are magnetically actuated and should guarantee a nearly silent ride. Virgin Hyperloop’s goal is to one day use the capsules of the planned transportation system to reach speeds of more than 1,000 kilometers per hour.

The goal is to start operations in 2030

Virgin Hyperloop aims to be certified by 2025 and commercial operations by 2030. The two-seater capsule used for the test was only used by the company to provide evidence of the possibility of safe travel for humans. For commercial operation in a few years, Virgin is targeting capsules with 28 seats.

Other companies are also currently working on the development of Hyperloop systems. The idea for this originally came from Tesla founder Elon Musk.

B5 reported on this issue on November 9, 2020 at 4:41 pm


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