HyperloopTT unveils its first passenger capsule

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT) has unveiled the first of its full-scale capsules that it hopes will one day be used to transport passengers at 750 miles per hour, reports Bloomberg. The California-based company is one of several Hyperloop contenders that have sprung up to deliver on Elon Musk’s 2013 transportation vision. The company will now transport the capsule to Toulouse in France, where it has begun construction of its test track, for further assembly and optimization. HyperloopTT says it hopes it’ll be “passenger ready” by 2019.

HyperloopTT’s ‘Quintero One’ pod is around 105 feet long and weighs 5 tons. It’s constructed “almost completely” out of the company’s own composite material which it has dubbed “Vibranium,” in a nod to the fictional material from the Marvel comics. The company claims the material is “eight times stronger than aluminum and 10 times stronger than steel alternatives.”

Separately, Virgin Hyperloop One has produced a full-sized prototype of the internals of its pod, in addition to a miniature system it uses for testing. Tesla also has a miniature prototype of its own which it uses for testing.

However, despite the amount of investment and the sheer amount of companies working in the area, the Hyperloop is still a long way from reality. The maximum speed reached by a pod is 284 mph. However, WARR’s prototype (which was a miniature pod weighing just 85kg) was still a long way off the 750 mph Musk hopes the technology to one day achieve.