An oversized barrel from the outside, carpeted floors, upholstered seats, WiFi and even plants for the passengers inside. The passengers of the future should feel good when they are flung from one city to the other through largely airless tubes at 900 kilometers per hour. Researchers around the world are working on Hyperloop technology. And Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder has just opened a Hyperloop test track at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Ottobrunn near Munich. It is Europe’s first full-size TÜV-approved test track certified for passenger operations.
At first, however, nothing will happen at high speed: the test track is 24 meters long. The futuristic vehicle with five passenger seats therefore only manages walking pace. Next up is a one kilometer long test track, for test driving also for the public. Where and when is open. Six chairs from different faculties are involved in the project, as TUM announced.
magnetic levitation technology
The basic principle of the Hyperloop: vacuum pumps extract air from the tubes and enable the pod, as the capsule is called, to move with little air resistance. In the tube, the pods slide with low-friction magnetic levitation technology and thus reach high speeds.
Some speak of a successor technology to the Transrapid magnetic levitation train. However, it was not very successful and to this day only operates in China between Shanghai and Pudong Airport.
The tube idea is not new. In the 19th century, the inventor Alfred Ely Beach had the idea of using the pneumatic tube principle for passengers as well. A 95 meter long tunnel was built in New York around 1870, in which a carriage driven by compressed air drove. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were ideas for transport in partially evacuated tubes. According to the media, the Swiss project Swissmetro relied on vacuum tunnels, similar to the Hyperloop.
In 2020, the company Virgin Hyperloop one undertook a first manned test drive at 172 kilometers per hour on its own test track in the Nevada desert. But now it relies on freight transport.
Own program at the TUM
Research into the technology continues elsewhere. Entrepreneur Elon Musk propagated the Hyperloop idea ten years ago and launched competitions for students from all over the world. The TUM teams were always successful – they took first place in all competitions. In 2018 they came – without people – to around 470 kilometers per hour and were thus far ahead of their competitors.
Research at TUM is now anchored in its own Hyperloop program. “We believe now is the time that such a system can actually be implemented,” says project manager Gabriele Semino about earlier attempts. The system runs electrically, so it is emission-free – and at some point it may be climate-neutral. According to the forecasts, it does not need more energy than an ICE. The construction should not be more expensive either. There are no concrete figures yet, only projections.
Costs, feasibility and safety – this is what the team in Ottobrunn now wants to research. Among other things, it wants to test the sealing of the concrete tube. A second area of research concerns the capsule and the safety and well-being of the passengers in the tube. In addition, the researchers want to deal with the control and drive system.
The prospect: Around 40 minutes from Munich to Berlin or from Los Angeles to San Francisco. However, unlike the Transrapid, the new means of transport would not be suitable for improving the tiresome connection from Munich Central Station to Munich Airport. The route is too short, says Semino. The Hyperloop needs 10 to 20 kilometers to even get up to speed.
