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KNOWITALL's avatar

Have you heard about the Virgin Hyperloop yet?

Asked by KNOWITALL (29860points) October 8th, 2020

West Virginia and Virgin officials said the new center will bring thousands of temporary construction jobs to a state that has witnessed economic decline with the downturn of the coal industry. The facility will employ up to 200 full-time workers when completed.

“What we’re doing is bringing a new industry straight to the place where West Virginians once mined,” said Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop One, at an announcement with the governor and state’s U.S. senators.

Any thoughts or opinions on this venture?

https://www.ozarksfirst.com/local-news/regional-news/virgin-hyperloop-one-picks-west-virginia-over-missouri-for-test-track-site/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR3WJ4VqgOSKqAzUVo8KyO8y-DBukZhm4YKITqs_Z3jj6y355b7ClKwoa3s

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18 Answers

elbanditoroso's avatar

I’ve read about it – they chose a good place to build their test site.

This is the sort of scientific experimentation that is thrilling to see. I hope they are successful.

zenvelo's avatar

I’d much rather see Richard Branson get this going than Elon Musk.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@elbanditoroso Me, too! So exciting! $48 million to the economy is pretty amazing, too.

kritiper's avatar

I haven’t heard anything about it. Is it like a Mobius strip??

cheebdragon's avatar

Let’s hope it’s better than this (You can skip the first 2min of the video)

Nomore_lockout's avatar

Sounds like a roller coaster at a state fair. Regular vomit comet.

Darth_Algar's avatar

My thoughts are that I would not be interested in it. I prefer to be on the ground, above the ground and not sealed in an air-tight windowless casket.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Traveling 600 mph inches away from the walls is going to turn your passenger load into hamburger at some point. And maintaining hundreds of miles of airtight tunnel isn’t going to be enormously expensive.

Improving the existing rail network would be a better use of time and money. If someone really needs to go 600 mph, they can take flight.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Call_Me_Jay Yeah, but look at the Channel Tunnel and the undersea Japanese Seiken Tunnel, or the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland?

Millions of passengers, millions of tons of freight, economic development as well as environmental positives, vs the risks as you can see with this link to the tables. Even the DOT has recommended some of these changes for alleviating traffic concerns and the deaths that would occur with those.

https://www.kennisplatformtunnelveiligheid.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/UPTUN-WP1-D12a-Causes-frequencies-incidents.pdf

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Well, the hyperloop would add 600 mph road rash on top of the risks of existing tunnels.

I would love to have super fast trains working. I’m not saying the goal is wrong, but I think nobody will ever build a useful Hyperloop. I don’t think it’s viable.

Will be happy if proved wrong.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Call_Me_Jay We’re Americans, we push~! haha!

The world’s most powerful wind tunnel at present is America’s LENX-X facility in Buffalo, New York state, which operates at speeds of up to 10 kilometres per second — 30 times the speed of sound.

Hypersonic aircraft are defined as vehicles that travel at speeds of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, or above.

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-building-worlds-fastest-wind-tunnel-to-test-weapons-2017-11#:~:text=The%20world's%20most%20powerful%20wind,speed%20of%20sound%2C%20or%20above.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Call_me_Jay And just like Space Force, you know we compete with other countries so we’ll keep going.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Competing means succeeding.

Nobody has a hyperloop. Nobody has even demonstrated a hyperloop beyond some short pieces of track with test sleds.

I don’t think it is physically viable for practical uses and there’s no evidence I am wrong.

Aster's avatar

I thought it was a new method of birth control.

KNOWITALL's avatar

@Aster haha! No, see below. MIT successfully build a scalable, feasible pod in 2017 for the SpaceX Hyperloop Competition.

Hyperloop is a new paradigm of transportation proposed by Elon Musk in 2013. Cruising at 760 mph, Hyperloop is poised to revolutionize transportation. Travelling in an evacuated tube above the ground diminishes the drag force of atmospheric air and allows passenger travel at high velocity with low energy consumption.

You can also go here if you want to go up in space and have a million bucks to spend.
https://www.spacex.com/rideshare/

Brian1946's avatar

I haven’t, but a Hooker Hypoloop took me around the world!! ;-D

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