South Korea To Develop ‘Near-Supersonic’ Train That Travels At Lightning Speed Like Hyperloop
South Korean government has a plan to develop a train that can travel "inside a state-of-the-art tube at lightning speed." The transportation is will run in near-supersonic speed that cuts a five-hour journey to only 30 minutes. This idea is very similar a train concept first conceived by Tesla Motors that inspired projects like the 'Hyperloop' in India.
South Korea To Develop A Hyperloop Train That Travels 1,000km/hr
The said revolutionary train reaches up to the speed of 1,000km/hr inside a pressure tube, said Korea Railroad Research Institute. Reported on South China Morning Post, the organization said that they're hoping to successfully develop a train which travel inside a state-of-the-art low-pressure tube at lightning speed in the near future. The state run organization will partner with other research groups and Hanyang University for the goal.
"To that end, we will cooperate with associated institutes as well as Hanyang University to check the viability of various related technologies called the hyper-tube format over the next three years," KRRI said.
The innovative transportation allows people to travel in floating pods inside a tube or vacuum without friction from wheels and tracks, not even air resistance is present. This makes it possible for the train to travel at a lightning speed. While this vacuum tube concept is very similar to the design first proposed by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musks, it seems like the South Korean government is willing to go on further with the project and willing to compete with Hyperloop Transportations Technologies.
Downside Of The Hyper-tube Project
The downside of this revolutionary innovation is its vulnerability to engineering flaws. Once tube is damaged by outside forces like natural events, the result will be a catastrophe. The same logic goes on to terrorism; if a terrorist makes a hole in the tube, the train will crash immediately.
The KRRI, however, is seeking to overcome these challenges and willing to pursue with the project and compete with global rivals: "Many countries such as the United States, Canada, and China are competing to take the lead in this futuristic technology and we will also try to pre-empt our global rivals."
