Race to create futuristic hyperloop transport system gains speed
NEW YORK — To build a hyperloop transportation system, engineers must create a near-vacuum in miles-long tubes, deploy powerful magnets to suspend capsules on a sliver of air and propel passengers at nearly the speed of sound without making them sick.Yet that may be the easy part.Backers of two companies racing to build the futuristic transport system insist it is technologically possible.The bigger challenge may be proving it commercially viable, sidestepping the fate of Concorde, the supersonic jet that airlines retired in 2003 because of its high costs.Billionaire inventor Elon Musk introduced the hyperloop idea in 2013, describing a low-pressure tube in which levitating capsules carry passengers at 1220km/h.San Francisco to Los Angeles — about 620km apart — would take 35 minutes, he said.Most people were sceptical; two groups of engineers got to work.They are now locked in a high-stakes competition that features big-name advisers, 11-foot-diameter steel tubes and magnets powerfu...
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