Elon Musk, progressive futurist and business magnate has proposed a
fifth mode of transportation called the Hyperloop. Just as he did with the
resurrection of electric vehicle, and the privatization of space ight, Musk
is taking the established concepts of the vactrain and maglev technology and
is attempting to bring it back into the spotlight but with key improvements.
This paper attempts to provide a brief historical literature review of High
Speed Transport to Very High Speed Transit (VHST) and to discuss the
limitations of the existing and theoretical technologies of Maglev trains
and evacuated tube transport. The Hyperloop is proposed as the next
contender in High Speed Transport, and a simplified energy analysis is
performed to aid in evaluating the feasibility of the Hyperloop. This paper
also attempts to highlight several features of the Hyperloop that
distinguishes it from traditional vactrains and evacuated tube technologies
by using capsules or pods to travel in a medium-pressure environment as
opposed to a dicult-to-maintain vacuum environment. A
diuser-compressor-nozzle system has also been proposed to overcome the
Kantrowitz Limit. This paper reviews the Hyperloop concept and its specific
advantages to the future development of a cost-eective and sustainable
high-speed mass transport technology.