American hyperloop Virgin Hyperloop made its maiden voyage with people on board on its test track on Sunday in Las Vegas.
Hyperloop is a transport system in which people travel in a train moving in a vacuum tube at a speed of over 700 km per hour. The Virgin Hyperloop system incorporates magnetic levitation very similar to that used in modern high-speed rail projects in Japan and Germany.
According to the company, the Virgin Hyperloop capsule only reached 100 mph on the test track. Nonetheless, Virgin Hyperloop executives see the test as an important milestone and a step towards commercializing hyperloop technology.
Josh Gigel, CTO of Virgin Hyperloop, and Sara Lucian, Director of Passenger Operations, made their first trip. They got into a Virgin Hyperloop two-seat capsule with seat belts, plush seats and small windows.
Virgin Hyperloop envisions building systems that connect cities. Gigel explained that his future commercial systems will have cabins with a capacity of 25 to 30 people. He also said that Virgin Hyperloop expects to carry tens of thousands of passengers per hour.
Hyperloop systems can operate both above ground and underground, but so far the company has focused on above ground projects. Tunneling underground can be time consuming and expensive for test structures.
The company predicts that the hyperloop system will be certified in 2025 or 2026, and that new vacuum transport projects will emerge by the end of the decade.
Recall that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the concept of such a system in 2013. Then, in 2017, Musk tweeted that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a tunnel from Washington to New York that could take 29 minutes to travel. At the first stage of the project, an environmental impact assessment is carried out, and there are no clear deadlines for its completion.
Musk's hyperloop venture, Boring Company, has focused on building tunnels under cities for lower-speed servicing of Tesla vehicles that do not require a vacuum tube. A system called The Loop is currently being created in Las Vegas.
Virgin Hyperloop was founded as Hyperloop Technologies in 2014. Richard Branson joined its board of directors in 2017, after which the company name was changed.
