Virgin Hyperloop conducts first successful human passenger test

Virgin Hyperloop has successfully completed its first passenger trial on November 8, a major milestone for the experiment. The test was conducted at the company’s DevLoop site near Las Vegas, in the Nevada desert.

The Virgin employees journeyed 500 metres in 15 seconds in a two-person pod called ‘Pegasus’ or XP-2, which travelled at 160 km/hour.

The first two passengers were Josh Giegel, co-founder and CTO of Virgin Hyperloop, and Sara Luchian who is head of passenger experience, The Verge reported.

Virgin said it has conducted 400 tests on the site which is 3.3 metres in diameter, but this is the first human passenger test. Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop told the publication that “no one has done anything close.”

Pegasus was designed with assistance from Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ design firm and is a scaled down version of the full-sized pods in plan. For regular use the pods are likely to carry 23-28 individuals at a time, the company said, adding that they have plans for larger goods pods as well.

Virgin Hyperloop employee and University of Pune graduate Tanay Manjrekar will be among the test passengers on November 9, The Economic Times reported.

India connect

Virgin Hyperloop One has plans to build a 15 km-long hyperloop demonstration track between Mumbai and Pune at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore.

According to Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), the futuristic hyperloop technology has pledged to cover the distance in 25 minutes with 5,000 commuters travelling in one direction per hour.

It has however run into some trouble, as Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Virgin founder Richard Branson on December 12, 2019, in an attempt to 'clear any misunderstanding if any' over the ambitious hyperloop project that aims to connect Mumbai with Pune.

This because as soon as the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress (I) formed the government in Maharashtra, in late November, there were talks of the new CM scrapping the Rs 60,500-crore project.

"Hyperloop has never been constructed anywhere in the world till now, so let this be tried somewhere else before us. Once it is successful, then we can think of it,” Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said in January.

Hyperloop is a high-speed travel mechanism that transports people in pods through vacuum tubes at 1,000 km/hour. According to Virgin, Hyperloop will reach top speed of 1,080 km/hour which would make travel between Los Angeles to San Francisco to 45 minutes. The same stretch takes about 90 minutes to cover by flight and approximately 6-10 hours via road.