Mint Primer: What’s as fast as sound, yet moves at a snail’s pace?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On 25 February, the Avishkar Hyperloop student team from IIT-Madras and the railway ministry along with ArcelorMittal, Hindalco and Larsen & Toubro unveiled the Hyperloop test track. Once commissioned, it could cut Delhi-Jaipur travel (250km) to 30 minutes compared with 1 hour by air and 4–5 hours by road.
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced a $1 million grant and a 40–50km track plan. IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, and IIT-Madras-incubated TuTr Hyperloop are advancing pilots, with TuTr partnering with Swisspod (backed by Elon Musk) and Tata Steel to develop the technology further. In 1799, inventor George Medhurst proposed moving goods through cast-iron pipes using air pressure.
In the 1970s, Swiss professor Marcel Juffer spoke about a hyperloop system. Musk resurrected it in 2013, and open-sourced its design. Hyperloop proposes a low-pressure tube system where magnetically levitated pod-like vehicles can transport cargo and passengers at speeds of 1,000-1,200km per hour.
Commercial jets cruise at around 900km per hour while magnetic levitation, or maglev, trains like Japan’s L0 Series can reach 600km an hour but still fall short of hyperloop’s projected speeds. Switzerland’s EuroTube is building a 3.1km test track, while the Netherlands is constructing the European Hyperloop Center. TUM Hyperloop (Germany) is extending its track to 400m.
HyperloopTT has plans in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, while Hyperloop Italia is developing Hyper Transfer. China recently tested its T-Flight hyperloop. Hyperloop One was shuttered in December 2023 after Richard Branson (co-founder of Virgin Group) withdrew support.
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