The TU Delft Hyperloop team came in second at the design competition at Texas A&M University last Saturday. They have earned an entry to the testing site of this futuristic transport system in California.
With their Pod Innovation Award, the TU Delft Hyperloop team is second after MIT (Best Overall Design Award) and the only non-US team in the top-five of winners as published by the Texas A&M University.
The highlight of the Hyperloop Design Competition in Texas on Saturday January 30 was undoubtedly the surprise appearance of Elon Musk himself. The billionaire SpaceX CEO couldn’t resist showing up to the competition that he helped inspire. Way back in 2013 he envisioned the Hyperloop transport system as a cross-over between ‘a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table,’ providing public transport at the speed of sound.
The Dutch Hyperloop team is one of the many who responded to Elon Musk’s call. Their design for a passenger pod for use in the vacuum tube uses magnetic levitation to reduce drag. Once over 10 m/s, the induced magnetism lifts the cabin’s auxiliary wheels from the ground. Students Tim Houter (team captain) and Merel Toussaint (aerodynamics) argue that the team’s design will have minimal drag because of the combination of induced magnetic levitation and low air pressure in the tube.
The Delft team will continue to build a 1:2 scale version of their passenger cabin to be tested on the 1.6 kilometre test track near SpaceX’s Hawthorne California headquarters next summer. Construction of the vacuum test tube will start this spring.
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