Hyperloop One Completes Its First Successful Test Run

author: Claire   

Los Angeles startup Hyperloop One recently announced its first completed test run on May 12th.

A 28-feet aerodynamic pod hit 70 mph in a vacuum at the company's testing facility located north of Las Vegas, according to The Verge. Using magnetic levitation accelerated by electrical charges, the test sled travels through the Hyperloop tube for 5.3 seconds. Hyperloop One said it had reached nearly 2Gs of acceleration.

"Hyperloop One has accomplished what no one has ever done before by successfully testing the first full scale Hyperloop system," Shervin Pishevar, co-founder of Hyperloop One said in a statement. "By achieving full vacuum, we essentially invented our own sky in a tube, as if you're flying at 200,000 feet in the air."

Compared with the company's ultimate target speed of 750 mph, there seems to be a long way to go. However, it's the first full-scale test that ran successfully, and the company's next step is to increase the speed to 250 mph and feature the first passenger pod gliding through the Hyperloop over a greater distance.

"For the first time in over 100 years, a new mode of transportation has been introduced," said Shervin Pishevar, co-founder and executive chairman of Hyperloop One. "Hyperloop is real, and it's here now."

"Hyperloop One will move people and things faster than at any other time in the world," said Pishevar.

Hyperloop One previously targeted Spring of 2017 for a "Kitty Hawk moment", where it would show that the ultrafast transportation system can work at full scale. In May of 2016, it conducted a much-hyped first test that lasted only about two seconds, with a 1500-pound metal sled sliding down a short track before crashing into sand. However, this time the sled is constructed of structural aluminum and carbon fiber, and of course, travels further.

Meanwhile, since last October, Hyperloop One has began building its 500-meter-long "DevLoop" test track, and plans to run tests on the track in the future to "validate its next-generation components and software."

The company is now carrying out feasibility studies in quite a few regions including the United Arab Emirates, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Moscow, and the UK. In the United States, nearly a dozen regions are being evaluated as possible future locations for the futuristic transportation system.

Claire

Claire Peng has over 6 years of professional experience in the media industry, covering TV, newspaper and online media. She was once a reporter and producer for Fairchild Television based in Toronto Canada, and worked as an English news reporter for the Global Times in Beijing. She writes mainly about self-driving, companies investment, and the enterprise lab.