American entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of website Paypal.com (as well as many other companies/vent...

1. Tycoon Unveils ‘Hyperloop’ Transport Project
American entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of website Paypal.com (as well as many other
companies/ventures), has this month unveiled a potentially revolutionary form of travel.
The ‘Hyperloop’ would hypothetically connect the US cities of Los Angeles and San
Francisco by transporting commuters at near supersonic speeds. By using a system of magnets and
fans, the Hyperloop would be able to travel between the sprawling cities in about 30 minutes.
The system, which would ideally be solar-powered, represents a cleaner, cheaper and far more
efficient system of public transport, at least in theory.
A high-speed train service between the two cities ishere, but the Hyperloop is potentially a better
mode of travel. Mr. Musk is confident that the idea has potential, writing in his proposal that, "Short
of figuring out real teleportation, which would of course be awesome... the only option for superfast
travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment,"
Musk estimated the overall cost of the project at $6bn (£3.9bn), which is surprisingly low
considering that it involves the development of a new and untested technology.
He suggests that cars could leave at intervals of 30 seconds and that they would reach an incredible
speed of up to 760MPH. The eventual ticket cost would be around $20 (£13 at the current
exchange rate), according to Musk’s projections.
According to Musk, the Hyperloop would be faster than taking a plane between cities, as it would
not spend time ascending and descending.
However, not everyone is as optimistic as the project’s founder. Dave Lee, technology
reporter for BBC news wrote, “The bright idea of transporting people using some kind of
vacuum-like tube is neither new nor imaginative”. He went on to remind readers that Robert
Goddard, the father of modern rocket propulsion, proposed a similar, vacuum powered system back
in 1909.
MIT aeronautics and astronautics Professor John Hansman was a little more optimistic, saying that
the important question is not whether the idea is theoretically sound (it is), but is instead "could you
do it in a way that makes sense from an energy-efficiency standpoint and makes sense from an
economic standpoint?"
Other critics have attacked Musk’s projected costs, Alan Wickens, former director of British
Rail said that Musk’s cost projections were “extremely optimistic”.
The Billionaire tycoon asserts that a working prototype would take roughly 4 years to build, but has
also said that he is too busy to build it right away, as he is currently working on SpaceX, a
commercial spaceflight project.
What, if any, future the Hyperloop will have depends greatly on the project’s ability to
capture the imaginations of investors, engineers and the general public. We’ll keep you
updated.

2. you can find the original article here