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Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop completed the world’s first passenger loop on an ultra-high-speed levitating pod system, the company said on Sunday, a key safety test for the technology that it hopes will transform the transportation of people and freight.
Virgin Hyperloop executives Josh Giegel, its Chief Technology Officer, and Sara Luchian, Director of Passenger Experience, reached speeds of up to 172 km / h at the company’s DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, the company said.
“I had the real pleasure of seeing history made before my eyes,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, president of Virgin Hyperloop and group president and CEO of DP World.
Los Angeles-based Hyperloop envisions a future where floating pods filled with passengers and freight whiz through vacuum tubes at 966km / h or faster.
In a hyperloop system, which uses magnetic levitation to allow for a near-silent journey, a trip between New York and Washington would only take 30 minutes. It would be twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times as fast as a high-speed train.
The company has previously performed over 400 human-passenger-free tests at the Nevada site.
The test comes a month after Reuters first reported that Virgin Hyperloop chose the US state of West Virginia to host a $ 500 million US certification center and test track that will serve as a testing ground for the its technology.
The company is working on safety certification by 2025 and commercial operations by 2030, he said.
Canada’s Transpod and Spain’s Zeleros also aim to overturn traditional passenger and freight networks with similar technology that they believe will reduce travel times, congestion and environmental damage related to oil-powered cars.
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