Dream Team presents hanging Hyperloop

Dream Team presents hanging Hyperloop

The TU Delft Hyperloop team presented a spectacular new design concept last week: the TU Delft capsule or ‘pod’ hangs from a rail instead of standing on it. The upside-down concept improves the stability of the system. This should make it easier to change tracks at high speed.  

Delft Hyperloop IV is the TU Delft entry in the competition between university teams to achieve Elon Musk’s 2013 dream: a public transport system in vacuum tubes that is as fast as an aeroplane and as ecological as a train.

Over the next six months, 40 Dream Team students will build their 255 kilogram prototype, which is 0.8 metres wide and 2.2 metres long (1:20 scale). The overhead rail, 70 metres long, is fitted with electromagnets, while the pod has permanent magnets. The pod hangs below the track, but the suspension hovers above it to eliminate friction.

At the end of July, the TU Delft Hyperloop team and 24 others, will take part in the European Hyperloop Week, which this year will take place between 18 and 24 July in Delft and Hilversum. (JW)

^{Missed the presentation? Watch it here.}