Tesla founder Elon Musk Wants to Build a Hyper What?

Musk want to build a Hyperloop.  A machine able to transport passengers from  downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes.

Described as a cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table - Musk envisions the Hyperloop traveling 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train, all the while costing you much less than an air ticket or for that manner cheaper than any other mode of transport. 

So what started him in this direction?  Well it seems Elon doesn't put much stock in the proposed bullet train.  First it seems that the Californian bullet would be the slowest in the world and the most expensive, in Musk's mind a complete waste.

But what exactly IS the Hyperloop?  Musk has been uncharacteristically quiet on the particulars.     However in a recent CNBC today Elon was a bit more talkative.  Of the Hyperloop, he said - It's basically an underground bullet train that, freed from pesky terrestrial concerns like weather, farm animals, and friction, could cross the country in hours instead of days. 

Wait you you say.  We can already fly across in hours, which is true, but at greater expense and at substantially higher risk.  

Musk says that the tech to build such a device already exists - basically superconducting magnets.

But as the Atlantic Wire writes:  

• Sadly, the Hyperloop will never, ever happen. It's a brilliant, pie-in-the-sky idea that the realities of politics and construction permits would render all but impossible. Even if the technology is perfect, we can barely build a train from Orlando-to-Tampa (using already obsolete technology)

Business Insider link HERE

New York to London in an Hour?!

Xnewman sends in the really great article from a blog I had never heard of before but they have great articles.  This one in question revisits the bullet train or high speed tube trains.  However this one seems to take it an extra mile.  This tube train would be of the vacuum type, meaning that with no air to push around, speeds can be attained that are unheard of in today's various modes of transport.  

According to the article:    

• "vactrain technology" could have us traveling from New York City to London hitting speeds up to 4,000 mph, making the journey from NYC to London in just one hour.

The article also seems to state that the core technologies may be available in just a decade.  The overall makeup of the trains and transport are pretty standard to those of us that have been reading of this mode for the better part of a century,  Very little sounds really unique, but exciting none the less.  The tubes would be about five feet across, the "tracks" would be frictionless magnetic style.  Each passenger capsule would be about the size of a small car.  Each capsule would be accelerated up to speed and for the balance of the trip  no additional power would be applied.  At the end of the trip, the energy is recaptured regenerative breaking manner.  The writers of the article state that using this system provided 50 times more transportation per kilowatt/hour than electric cars or trains.    

You can read the complete article HERE