Yesterday two minutes after midnight a team of Hyperloop experts managed to achieve controlled propulsion and levitation of the Hyperloop One vehicle in a vacuum environment. Thay say that their achievement will change the history of transport and it is the first new mean of transport after Wright brothers managed to put their Flyer in the air in December 1903.
The successfull launch put Hyperloop One on the verge of complete systems test at the DevLoop site near Las Vegas, where the installed almost 1.000 feet of linear motor in a 1.640 feet logn tube, which is capable to hold an air presure dawn to 91.000 meters above sea level. The top speed of the vehicle traveling inside it will be 250 mph (400 km/h).
The Hyperloop team also unveiled first vehicle to travel in vakuum, XP-1 pod, which they will use to conduct fuul system tests on the track. It is has carbon fiber and aluminium aeroshell, which houses levitating chassis with suspension, lift, guidance and propulsion systems.
The first test was short. It lasted only 5,3 seconds on the 100 feet of the magnetic motor, but as the team said: "Five seconds sure felt momentous that night."