Hyperloop One First Propulsion Open-air Test

Today’s biggest newest of May 11 was probably the Hyperloop One first Propulsion Open-air Test (or POAT). The test, as the name suggests, is to reaffirm the company’s custom high-tech propulsion of the future tubed transportation system. The event was held in the desert, some 35 miles north of Las Vegas in Nevada and it ended as quickly as it had started, and to the huge applause of the invited guests. The ‘train’, nicknamed ‘sled’, rockets from standstill to 116 miles an hour in a scant 1.1 seconds, pulling 2.4 Gs. It travelled a short 100 meters (328 feet) before being haul to a stop by a sand bank at the end of the track. As it turns out, brakes weren’t in place and hence, sand was used to slow the sled down and pulling it to a rest.

The test was a short one; it was done in two seconds or less, but that was all Hyperloop One needed. It was a baby step towards realizing Elon Musk’s ambitious vision of a mass transportation system that will one day shuttles residents between two cities in the U.S. in 35 minutes. Much have to be done, including more testing of the propulsion system, the design of the actual transporter, and of course, designing and putting together a giant partial vacuum tube that would reduced air drag to allow this future mass transportation system to hit the targeted 700 mph. The outfit planned to execute a “full system test” later this year and they had to cos’ the company’s timeline aims to have the high-tech transportation system moving cargoes by 2019 and humans by 2021 and therefore, time is of the essence.

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via The Verge via Forbes