Founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, Elon Musk, seems to have something up his sleeve. Transportation with a difference that Musk calls the “Hyperloop”. This new form of transportation is set to transport people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. But Musk has been tight lipped regarding this new idea.

Musk said:

[The system is] 3 or 4 times faster than the bullet train.

If you put solar panels on it, you generate more power than you would consume in the system. There’s a way to store the power so it would run 24/7 without using batteries.

The other details given is that the Hyperloop is a “cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.” This idea may sound a little far fetched but it is not the first of its kind.

In 1972 a paper written by physicist R.M. Salter detailed an underground transport system that could move people from New York To Los Angeles in 21 minutes. It was known as the Very High Speed Transit System. And according to the paper the idea is plausible, the only snags encountered by Salter were politics and construction issues.

This is Salter’s paper.

More details regarding the Hyperloop will be available on 20 June according to Musk.

[Source: Business Insider, The Verge]