- Joined
- Apr 1, 2005
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I see hyperloop was back in the news again recently. Colour me sceptical but people have been talking about vacuum tunnel trains for longer than powered flight. The biggest problem I have with the concept is how you build and maintain a low pressure tunnel of any length. When Elon Musk was talking about it, it was an above ground tube which would need to be made of unobtainium given that all existing above ground tubes tend to have regular right angle turn sections along them to handle the thermal expansion and contraction. And that's all before you get to the engineering challenge of making it withstand the external pressure and protect the capsule and occupants internally when travelling at bullet like speeds. Imagine a loose bolt shears somewhere?