DRIVE A2B February 2018

FUTURE TRANSPORTATION
HYPERLOOP
will soon be
HERE
In January 2018 Hyperloop
Transportation Technologies
(HTT) CEO Dirk Ahlborn said that
HTT is on the brink of a major
announcement.
“This is going to be a busy year. We
are expecting to announce the first
commercial track this year,” he said.
Entrepreneur and innovative
engineer Elon Musk, came up
with the idea for super-fast
transportation. There are several
companies around the world
attempting to develop this idea
and HTT could be the first to get a
working track.
Passengers and goods will travel
in pressurized capsules floating
on a frictionless magnetic cushion
within the tubes. Capsules are
powered by a linear induction
motor, an electromagnetic
propulsion, and embedded
rechargeable batteries. As a result,
the system is silent and emissionfree.
“It should be ready by midyear. It is
basically like building an airplane
and that takes about a year,” he
said.
“To be clear, this is not some sort of
test pod, this is the sort of capsule
that you and I are going to be riding
in a little bit.”
The capsules are engineered and
designed to create a safe and
harmonious environment for the
passengers.
DEWDROP is the name of the Hyperloop terminal station prototype with circular
guidance and Operating System. It can move 3,600 passengers per hour and
every platform gate will manage 180 people per hour. The Dewdrop can easily
be built into th existing transportation infrastructure.
HTT uses a next generation passive
magnetic levitation system.
It’s called Inductrack. Magnets
enable passive levitation over an
unpowered but conductive track.
And as capsules move through the
low pressure environment, they use
very little energy on route thanks to
the reduced drag forces.
In addition, HTT has developed
a new skin material for capsule
26 DRIVE A2B magazine · February 2018