Back in February, TU Delft won the first phase of SpaceX's Hyperloop Competition, beating out MIT and the Technical University of Munich, for their design of a human-scale Hyperloop pod. Well, last week, Europe's first hyperloop test facility on the TU Delft campus was unveiled.
Hardt, which was founded by some of the winners from Elon Musk's hyperloop competition, is the first European company to work on developing the futuristic transport system. They have been working in conjunction with the construction company BAM to build the 30-meter long test facility revealed last Thursday. The facility consists of a tube with a length of 30 meters and an external diameter of 3.2 and will allow Hardt to try out all the important systems at low speeds. Testing will focus on examining the safety, the propulsion, the gliding and the stabilization of the hyperloop vehicle. In addition, the company is also interested in looking into potential social issues concerning the new form of transportation and will work with TU Delft to study the integration of this technology into a living and working environment.
At the unveiling of the facility, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, announced that, along with Hardt and the American company Hyperloop One, they will begin researching the possibilities for the hyperloop in the Netherlands. Minister Schultz van Haegan said "in terms of transportation, a new age has begun with self-driving vehicles, platooning trucks and drones. In the Netherlands, we want to be the European test bed for these innovative and sustainable forms of transport and so build up more knowledge about them. The hyperloop is fast, innovative, silent, and sustainable and so very interesting for the transportation needs of the future."
This is coming on the heels of news that Elon Musk may (or may not be) building tunnels under Los Angeles for hyperloop transit. Either way, major interest in the technology is there making the hyperloop well on it's way to being the transit of the future.
3 Comments
"The hyperloop is fast, innovative, silent, and sustainable"
Getting a little ahead of reality there, aren't you?
This is a concept that is a long way from being proven. Maybe by the time Musk is an old man it might work, but I'm not counting on it.
In the meantime, we haven't even managed to get magnetic levitation working commercially.
Of all the things - and there are many - that make me think that the hyperloop is nothing but a hype and a quick money grab, this video is a perfect example: Dramatic music, long camera shots of people welding and looking intently at computer monitors, and then... a big tube, nowhere near long enough to conduct any real-world testing.
I wish, I really wish, I knew all of the funding sources for hyperloop. I bet we'd be shocked if we saw the government and corporate grants and no-interest 'loans' this white elephant is soaking up.
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