A team from the Technical University of Munich has topped previous hyperloop speed records with a capsule that hit 467 kilometres per hour, at a competition run by SpaceX.
The WARR Hyperloop team, made up of over 40 students from the Technical University of Munich, raced their prototype in the Hyperloop Pod Competition, held at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California on 22 July 2018.
It is the third time the aerospace company ? headed by billionaire engineer Elon Musk ? has run the competition, and the third time WARR Hyperloop has won.
By reaching a top speed of 467 kilometres per hour, the team beat the record they set at last year's competition by almost 50 per cent.
Self-propelling capsules created for 2018 competition
SpaceX's Hyperloop Pod Competition challenges university teams to build the best capsule for its high-speed transportation system, first mooted by Musk in a white paper in 2013. As a point of difference to previous competitions, the 2018 competing pods had to be self-propelled. "That was optional in the previous years; it was also possible to use SpaceX technology," said WARR Hyperloop team leader Gabriele Semino. "But we've had our own drive since 2017. This meant we were able to further develop our concept in principle."
WARR Hyperloop's pod reached a record-breaking speed of 467 kilometres per hour at the SpaceX competition
He said for this year's entry, the team focused on reducing weight while increasing drive performance...