Despite the many good runs during the testing phase, Delft Hyperloop Team 04 was still quite nervous on Friday, July 17, on our premises at Crailoo in Hilversum. The team was ready to break the previous record of 202 km/h. And they did! Their pod, Atlas04, managed to reach 360 km/h on the long test track. A new record that was celebrated with, what else, champagne!
Businessline Manager Signalling & Power, Ben van Schijndel of Strukton Rail, CEO Region Northern Europe voestalpine Railway Systems and former commercial director Railpro, Mark de Vries, and Team leader quality assurance products Eric Brink officially opened the long test track.
It was an eventful year in which the students were unfortunately not able to test their pod in Los Angeles. However, that did not stop them from pushing forward. Delft Hyperloop Public Relations manager Zola Fung-a-Jou stated:
We’ve had to adjust our expectations frequently and continuously formulate a new goal. I think that everybody learned so much and I definitely look back on a great year.
In order to give this new transport concept an incredible technological boost, Elon Musk decided to turn this into a competition in 2015. A few selected teams travel annually to Los Angeles in order to test their pod in the vacuum tube. Hoping that one of these pods is a good design to help further develop the Hyperloop that will contribute to making this a realistic transport medium in 20 or 30 years. In order to be able to test during this development period, there was a need for a test site closer to home. The long test track, which is about 386 meters long, was built early 2019 on our premises at Crailoo in Hilversum. This was a collaboration with ProRail and Strukton Rail, who are also rail infrastructure partners of Delft Hyperloop.
The idea of making future railways pressurized was already suggested around the 1800’s. Many tried but many failed. Until now. The Atlas04 broke the record of the long test track. So what’s next? Zola is already looking ahead:
We’ve hired strategists who are developing a long term plan for Delft Hyperloop. These past years, we’ve solely focused on speed, but the Hyperloop has so many other interesting aspects as well that could be further developed. I am certain that a new enthusiastic team will start next year to continue realizing the Hyperloop dream.
In case you missed the live stream and still wish to see it, please follow this link.
