Ali AlHadi Ismail | Staff Writer

Transportation, the ability to locomote from a place to another through a variety of modes such as land, air, water, or even space, has evolved to a great extent roughly for 10,030 years, dating back to when the first documented ship, the Pesse canoe, was put into service as the first of its kind. It is an activity linked to the early inception of humanity by means of human-powered transportation and animal-powered locomotion of cargo, commodities, and people. Additionally, the evolution of helicopters and planes from the papers of Jules Verne’s 1886 sci-fi novel, Robur the Conqueror, to the materialized model manifested in the Wright Flyer constructed by the Wright brothers in 1903, was a colossal stride in terms of boosting global intercontinental locomotion with regard to duration and coverage. The previously-mentioned feat of Orville and Wilbur Wright reflects the futuristic scene of transit, whereby Elon’s Musk conceptualization of the hyperloop, anticipated to commence its effective service as early as 2027, could help shape up a new era of transportation.

A hyperloop is a proposed method of transportation over land denoted by its extremely high speed of movement with capabilities of locomoting supersonically, carrying a great load composed of cargo and people. The name is derived from its proposed motion through loops with an average expected speed of 760 mph. A hyperloop comprises a fold sealed apparatus of tubes enclosing a pod that drifts through the magnetic or electromagnetic mode of propulsion. Furthermore, the hyperloop could be powered through its aerodynamic design facilitated by the low-pressure tube. The moving capsules necessitate the tube to be at partial vacuum. This allows the hyperloop to locomote in ease and in an accelerated manner far away from the effects of air resistance or friction.

The notion of a hyperloop is primarily credited to George Medhurst long before Elon Musk, who revived and conceptualized the idea. Medhurst proposed a system in 1820 powered through pneumatic forces by deploying air pressure for the sake of propulsion. Medhurst placed on the table several variants comprising the concept of partial vacuum. Elon Musk, regardless of proposed interglobal routes of the hyperloop, considers this advanced technology a great option of transportation on Mars which could potentially operate without the tubes due to the low air resistance.

This great machine would move with an anticipated speed of 1223 km/h, a rate that allows the system to reach Beirut from the city of Baalbek for instance in just 4.3 minutes. It currently takes more than 2 hours of commuting by car to travel from one city to the other. For comparison, airplanes usually travel in the air with a speed of 740 to 930 Km/h. This implies that the anticipated hyperloop could become the fastest transportation system, especially since the commercial supersonic transport jets, such as the Tupolev Tu-144 and the Concorde, have failed so far. Additionally, it should be more economical than modern airplanes, where the ticket is expected to be around $20, running on green renewable energy. This would also help in cutting down the carbon emissions.

Only time will tell whether the hyperloop will revolutionize transportation the same way the Wright brothers’ invention did.