Hyperloop Set To Fly With Their New Passive Maglev System

When it comes to transport, you are spoilt for choice these days. From being able to hop on a bus or train, to driving your own car or even calling a lift through a taxi app, the ways to get around are often decided more by habit than actual choice. One option that looks to change that is the Hyperloop, a mode of transport that will see a high-speed train fly through a tunnel at speeds which could make even flying seem slow. Thanks to a new magnetic levitation (maglev) system, that dream is one step closer.

The original design, as put forward by Elon Musk (the guy behind Tesla and SpaceX), saw the trains flying through the tunnel and being levitated by a compressed air system, the new technology would see this replaced by a series of magnets on the train. The magnets would be outlined in a Halbach array, an arrangement designed to focus the magnetic field in a single direction, avoiding and issues your phone or devices might have with a strong magnetic field.

The magnetic fields projected under the train would then be used to “levitate” the train over non-powered electromagnetic coils. Bibop Gresta, COO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies explains how “utilizing a passive levitation system will eliminate the need for power stations along the Hyperloop track, which makes this system the most suitable for the application and will keep construction costs low”. The other benefit as explained by Gresta is the safety that the new maglev system would offer, “from a safety aspect, the system has huge advantages, levitation occurs purely through movement, therefore if any type of power failure occurs, Hyperloop pods would continue to levitate and only after reaching minimal speeds touch the ground”.

With an estimated speed of 760mph, the Hyperloop technology could quickly see the pod based transport of the future become a reality even sooner both in America and Europe.