[blackwasp]

The first passenger test of the Virgin Hyperloop has been completed in what the company views as a pivotal moment in the future of transportation.
Virgin Hyperloop conducted the test at its 500m (1,640 feet) long DevLoop test track in Las Vegas with the company’s chief technology officer, Josh Giegel, and its director of passenger experience, Sara Luchian, onboard. The duo were riding in a special two-seater prototype built specifically to demonstrate that passengers can travel safely in a hyperloop vehicle.

The test saw the XP-2 pod reach a top speed of 107 mph (172 km/h). Virgin Hyperloop’s ultimate goal is for passengers to travel at speeds of over 600 mph (~1,000 km/h) in 28-person pods. The company projects that a journey from Los Angeles to San Fransisco will take just 45 minutes producing zero emissions. More than 400 unoccupied tests of the system have been conducted at the company’s testing site.

The transportation system uses magnetic levitation, similar to high-speed rail projects in Germany and Japan, to lift small pods pod above the track and through a vacuum tube. This is the first time that the technology that was proposed by Elon Musk back in 2012 has been tested with people on board.

Source

“I can’t tell you how often I get asked ‘is hyperloop safe?” Virgin Hyperloop chief executive Jay Walder said. “With today’s passenger testing, we have successfully answered this question, demonstrating that not only can Virgin Hyperloop safely put a person in a pod in a vacuum environment, but that the company has a thoughtful approach to safety which has been validated by an independent third party.”

Virgin Hyperloop wants to build a network of systems around the world, connecting many major cities. A lot of work needs to be done before that happens, however. In the immediate future, the company is working to raise $500 million to establish a six-mile test facility in West Virginia and thinks the system could be certified in 2025 or 2026.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKvbSboQ5_g

[Dieseltuned]

Imagine yourself strapped to a seat inside a capsule which is placed inside a pressurised tube and hurtling at almost mach 1. What are the fail safe measures, what happens if the capsule stops in between how do they getthe passangers out if the tube? Sorry to say but this is down right scary and for one I am not trying this out. Obviosuly if one makes it to India in my lifetime.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Imagine yourself strapped to a seat inside a capsule which is placed inside a pressurised tube and hurtling at almost mach 1. What are the fail safe measures, what happens if the capsule stops in between how do they getthe passangers out if the tube? Sorry to say but this is down right scary and for one I am not trying this out. Obviosuly if one makes it to India in my lifetime.

It could be worse: Say they strap you inside a capsule, pressurise it, take off and cruise at 40.000 feet, minus 35oC, little oxygen, at close to mach 1 across say an ocean.

Apparently, some people have done that and lived to tell!

Jeroen

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

It could be worse: Say they strap you inside a capsule, pressurise it, take off and cruise at 40.000 feet, minus 35oC, little oxygen, at close to mach 1 across say an ocean.

Apparently, some people have done that and lived to tell!

Jeroen

I get your jist sir, but the capsule you are talking about is not inside a few hundred miles long closed tube.

Regards
Ritesh

[BoneCollector]

This reminds me of General Georgi Koskov's escape in the movie, The Living Daylights.

https://youtu.be/wCm3ZZBae6I

[GTO]

Dropping links to 2 related threads about the Hyperloop in India:

Mumbai - Pune Hyperloop

Amaravati & Vijayawada

[Sebring]

Wow. This stuff is awesome. The UAE was considering this for travel between Dubai-Abu Dhabi and we got to see some prototypes that time. I'm astounded how some visionaries get these 'fantasy' projects off the ground. Hope it sees light of day!

[Cessna182]

While this is a remarkable achievement, I wonder how economical it would be. How can constructing a vacuum tube that's hermetically sealed be cheaper than a high-speed railway? Even one leak can lead to disaster and millions of pressure sensors would have to be used even on a small stretch spanning a few kilometers.

Off topic- the focus of the Hyperloop competitions so far has been on making the capsule. This great, and it has earned a lot of students their jobs at good engineering firms. However, the real challenge would be to make the tube, take care of the curvatures,find a suitable way to conceal it from miscreants etc. Looks like something that will take a very long time. The advent of more affordable highspeed trains and electric aircrafts might make this a difficult proposition.

I mean, if it was so feasible, companies like Alstom would have jumped on it to take it to completion faster because they have decades of coach and cabin designing experience.

[Guna]

Isn't that very low after all the hype? Thalys and bullet train do 300 kmph on regular basis (They could cross 400 kmph in test runs)

[Mistakenguy]

Originally Posted by Guna

Isn't that very low after all the hype? Thalys and bullet train do 300 kmph on regular basis (They could cross 400 kmph in test runs)

The test loop was just 500 m long as per the article. This could be a reason why it reached a top speed of only 172 km/h.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

I get your jist sir, but the capsule you are talking about is not inside a few hundred miles long closed tube.

Regards
Ritesh

Don't you think the designers would have thought about such scenarios? That people getting stuck inside a tunnel which is few hundred miles long?
Not sure how you were picturing a breakdown scenario and rescue mission - towing them few hundred miles to the other edge?

[Sebring]

When they were testing in the UAE, the claimed speed was 1,223 KMPH. This was tested without passengers. So this is just the first step. Just so the travelers start trusting. As and when they gain confidence, speed shall increase in increments

Originally Posted by Guna

Isn't that very low after all the hype? A bullet train do 300 kmph on regular basis (They could cross 400 kmph in test runs)

[Dieseltuned]

Originally Posted by clevermax

Don't you think the designers would have thought about such scenarios? That people getting stuck inside a tunnel which is few hundred miles long?
Not sure how you were picturing a breakdown scenario and rescue mission - towing them few hundred miles to the other edge?

I am a tester by profession , so my mind is programmed to think for failure scenarios. The company has not mentioned any such details in the open now, so was just thinking loud.
The kind of publicity blitzkreig and articles appearing in a widely read daily in mumbai surely points to the fact that the company is desperate to salvage it's Mumbai Pune project. Again this is going to be a challange as how does the "tube" navigate the mighty sahyadris ?Anyways it's like as I really do not think any such thing coming to India any time soon. These are my personal thoughts.

[Jeroen]

It is a very interesting technology. The concept is quite old. It popped up in the 18th century already.

I have been doing a bit of reading on it. There are a number of independent studies in the overall feasibility of this technology.

Depends a bit who to believe, and it also depends on the exact route, but it appears that the cost per passenger / kilometer of track can compete with high speed trains. High Speed train has very high infrastructure cost and quite high running and operational cost.

This particular loop is subject to all the regular safety regulations as applicable to all public transportation system and a certification institute is involved.

The loss of vacuum is not a big deal and does not require millions of vacuum sensors.

If you loose the vacuum, resistance of the carriage builds up and it will just slow down. Very interesting concept of having every section self contained in terms of energy with solar panels.

The Technical University of Delta, among others, did a study on it

Main findings:

Results: The main operational result is that the capacity of HL is low which implies a low utilization of the infrastructure. Because the infrastructure costs dominate the total costs, the costs per passenger km are high compared to those for HSR and APT. The HL performs very well regarding the social/environmental aspects because of low energy use, no GHG emissions and hardly any noise. The safety performance needs further consideration.
Conclusions: The HL system is promising for relieving the environmental pressure of long-distance travelling, but has disadvantages regarding the operational and financial performances.

For full report: http://pure.tudelft.nl/ws/portalfile...018_0312_x.pdf

There are other studies that show a better economical feasibility. Personally I think there are two main reasons. It is always incredibly difficult to project the real cost of a mass deployment of a new technology. The second reason, which is embedded in the TU findings as well, is that the deployment cost for the infrastructure will differ hugely depending on terrain, geography etc. Which is TU nerd speak to basically say it is location/application dependent.

What it does mean, think Concorde, is that the first commercial endeavours are likely to cater for business type of passengers. And or the very rich for whom time is precious no matter what the cost.

Using the same infrastructure for freight could be a very interesting proposition too.

Jeroen

[Cessna182]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

This particular loop is subject to all the regular safety regulations as applicable to all public transportation system and a certification institute is involved.

The loss of vacuum is not a big deal and does not require millions of vacuum sensors.

If you loose the vacuum, resistance of the carriage builds up and it will just slow down. Very interesting concept of having every section self contained in terms of energy with solar panels.

The Technical University of Delta, among others, did a study on it

Thank you for sharing the report and correcting my belief that it would need many vacuum sensors.

If there is a leak somewhere, will it not force outside air into the tube and destabilize the fast moving object? I was thinking simplistically about what would happen if an airplane suffers a leakage while flying at a high altitude- maybe through a window or door failure. The pressurized air would escape violently and objects/passengers might be sucked out too, because of the lower pressure outside the aircraft at those heights.

In case of the hyperloop, is the possibility of a vacuum leak similar to this situation in reverse? The pressure difference between the inside and outside of the tube is going to be far higher in this case.