Elon Musk's Hyperloop project ready for key test, aims to achieve speeds of 250 mph

Engineers will soon conduct a crucial test of a futuristic technology championed by entrepreneur Elon Musk that seeks to revolutionise transportation by sending passengers and cargo packed into pods through an intercity system of vacuum tubes.

Hyperloop One , the Los-Angeles-based company developing the technology, is gearing up to send a 28-foot-long (8.5 meter-long) pod hurtling down a set of tracks in a test run in Nevada in the next few weeks, spokeswoman Marcy Simon said.

Hyperloop One is working to develop a technical vision proposed by Musk, the founder of rocket maker SpaceX and electric car company Tesla Motors . In 2013, he suggested sending pods with passengers through giant vacuum tubes between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hyperloop aims to achieve speeds of 250 mph (402 km/h) in its upcoming phase of testing. As it gears up for that experiment, the company on Wednesday released the results from a May 12 test in the Nevada desert. A Hyperloop One sled on wheels for the first time coasted above a track using magnets, Simon said.

It levitated for 5.3 seconds in a vacuum-sealed tube and reached speeds of 70 miles per hour (113 km/h), the company said in a statement. By comparison, another test by Hyperloop One that made national headlines last year was done on an open-air track, not in the tube, a key to achieving high speeds.

Backers of the project envision the pods reaching speeds of 750 miles per hour (1,200 kph), but sceptics say the hyperloop idea faces real-world challenges ranging from obtaining construction permits to making turns at jet speed.

 Hyperloop One has raised $160 million in funding and has touted the technology’s potential as a rapid-transit option. “Hyperloop One will move people and things faster than at any other time in the world,” Shervin Pishevar , co-founder and executive chairman of Hyperloop One, said in a statement.

Reuters