this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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222
The hyperloop is dead for real this time (www.theverge.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The hyperloop is dead for real this time::Hyperloop One is shutting down its operations. The company was founded in 2014 promising pods that would carry passengers at airline speeds through nearly airless tubes. Turns out, it wasn’t really viable.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I mean, pretty much any engineering student who's taken Fluid Dynamics I and a physics/dynamics series could tell you that trying to maintain a high vacuum along hundreds of miles of tube, then accelerating things inside that tube to 700mph (when KE=1/2m v^2), was probably a very very bad idea. the sheer accurate tolerances that would need to be maintained between each tube joint, and the quality of the air seals, along the entire length of tube is just insane.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago

Yeah. It was always such a weird idea.

My brother worked at Virgin Hyperloop, and I think pretty much everyone there felt similarly that building trains of any kind was a worthwhile ambition, even if this particular implementation was a quixotic and unrealistic approach to high-speed rail development. But you take work where you find it. Hopefully the Brightline trains will demonstrate that a more conventional approach just makes more sense, and lead to more tried-and-tested rail projects.