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Virgin announces investment in Hyperloop One

Eccentric billionaire Richard Branson has today announced that the Virgin Group has invested in Hyperloop One – a super high speed train.

“Isn’t that Elon Musk’s project?” we hear the internet ask. Well yes, the concept of a Hyperloop was created by Musk but the idea was open-sourced to encourage its development.

Hyperloop One was one of the firms pushing the idea forward and now Branson is joining the firm’s board of directors. The name is also getting a bit of a sprucing up. It will now carry the name “Virgin Hyperloop One”.

We’re sure the marketing team had many sleepless nights thinking that one up.

In the announcement Branson discussed how the Hyperloop was a revolutionary transport solution and, while we’re usually sceptical, we can’t help but agree.

“With Virgin Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo will be loaded into a pod, and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag,” Branson explained.

All that boils down to an estimated journey time of 50 minutes between Edinburgh and London. According to Google Maps that journey would take 4 hours 20 minutes by train, 7 hours 39 minutes by car, 1 hour 10 min by plane and 124 hours if you caught the shoelace express.

The technology is still in its infancy but with the backing of Branson we hope to see it grow exponentially.

 

[Source – Virgin]

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