The insane idea

The originator of the levitating vehicle called Hyperloop moving in an almost vacuous tube is Elon Musk, the owner of the SpaceX company. He is the contest organizer and the one, who invited universities of technology from all over the world to participate in this project.

In September of 2015 students from Warsaw University of Technology from startup called Carbon Warsaw Workshop also joined the project and have started to work on the vehicle of the future. They have invited also prof. Janusz Piechna from their Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering to join them. – Immediately, when we started I thought about prof. Piechna – says Krzysztof Tabiszewski, the main project coordinator in Hyper Poland. – I told professor about our plans and what we did, and two days later he sent us his first calculations. In the end 25 people became engaged with the project: students from WUT (students research circle SKAP), Wroclaw University of Technology and designing companies.

The contest had 3 stages. 1200 teams from all over the world were qualified to the first stage. The second stage required to prepare more detailed project and only 300 teams took part in it – the two of them  were from Poland. In the last stage, the participants were supposed to design a prototype of the Hyperloop transport capsule. The finale took place at the end of January in Texas, USA. Reaching the final and presenting the project of the vehicles in USA were a great success for the participants.

Innovating solutions

The building of such a vehicle shows extremely innovating thinking about the transport of the future. The Hyper Poland team has demonstrated that Polish technical concept and the Polish design thinking is not any different from the American one.

- I was trying to underline the weaknesses of the idea, but I also pointed out the strengths – says prof. Janusz Piechna about cooperation with young engineers. – The whole project was a well designed compromise between fantasy and technical possibilities.

Fast, inexpensive and safe

The planes fly high in order to take advantage of the decreased air density, lower resistance of the flight and cut the fuel usage. The idea of Elon Musk aims to ensure alike conditions also on the ground. They will be created artificially in a pipe with lower pressure similar to conditions prevailing 47 kilometers over the ground.  The vehicle similar to a plane equipped with airbags or magnetic cushions Instead of wings would be moving in the pipe. Unfortunately only the lowering the pressure in the pipe does not solve the problem. A classic vehicle moving in a pipe with such an enormous speed (close to the speed of sound) would cause a great compression of air ahead. Such aerodynamic resistance is hard to overcome. Hyper Poland Team wants to solve this problem by sucking the air ahead of the vehicle, its compressing, cooling and delivering with a tiny pipe, omitting the passenger compartment, straight to the back side of the capsule and decompressing in a nozzle driving the vehicle.  Other teams proposed classic axial compressors, but they are useless in such difficult conditions.

In order to take part in this project young engineers from Warsaw University of Technology have designed a new kind of compressor – reverse air diagonal compressor that allows work under conditions similar to the speed of sound. This solution was recognized as innovative and very interesting during the presentation hold in the USA.

The other authorial solution is a module construction of the vehicle. Hyper Poland is made of three basic elements: passenger module, safety capsule and transporting vehicle. This kind of construction helps to solve problem of different pressures. In a pipe, where a vehicle moves there is almost no air, but in a passenger compartment the pressure must be similar to the atmospheric. The safety capsule copes with dissimilarity of pressures. The passenger module is placed into the safety capsule. The luck of regular doors requires neither any additional protection nor increasing the thickness of construction. It ensures also a very small mass of construction. 

Hyper Poland thinks globally. Thanks to this fact they also have designed a hyperloop station. The station is also made from modals and can be extended very quickly. The departure will take place every two minutes.

Mission impossible?

Building a vehicle and infrastructure that helps to travel from Gdańsk to Kraków in only 35 minutes seems to be an unreal dream. But prof. Piechna as well as members of Hyper Poland underline that the idea is realistic.

- Taking under consideration Polish technical conditions – the implementation of the project is possible – estimates prof. Piechna. – The project would have to combine technological possibilities of numerous small Polish companies, the experience of existing aviation companies, organizing possibilities of train operators and companies placing pipelines with a large diameter.

The United States are now testing first Hyperloop track. The project should be ready in 2021. Members of Hyper Poland have met Minister of Economic Development, who is interested in this innovating solution. – We are giving only the idea. We show that this is possible. That Polish engineers can execute such project on the same level as Americans or maybe even better – in some aspects – underline Krzysztof Tabiszewski.

Global village

Europe is a perfect place to build this kind of transport network. The distances between capitals are too small for  a plane to be always payable, and a car or a train – too uncomfortable and takes too much time. Hyperloop could be comparable to the underground line.

In the 30 biggest Europe cities live and work more than 100 million people. They are placed in a big circle with a radius about 1000 miles. In some of those cities the main airport is placed far away from downtown. Adding to this long way to the airport, traffic jam, airport check in and all safety procedures – the time of travelling by plane is not that short at all.

The business travel to European capitals will be quick and comfortable with the Hyperloop. Krzysztof Tabiszewski is convinced that this is only a matter of time and finding a right investor, when such an opportunity appears.

Is this the end of dreams about the train of the future?

Even though the Hyper Poland Team does not take part in the contest any more, they want to continue their work.  The team has to build a stereotype to demonstrate the technology and conduct first tests. The first prototype will be printed using a 3D printer at a scale 1:24. The prototype will be funded from money collected via website: odpalprojekt.pl.  High cost of a print is caused by a high level of complexity of the project. A model will consist of small elements that must be produced with precision.

From students research circles to business

How to achieve a success thanks to knowledge gain during studies? - Students research circles are the first place where knowledge can be used in practice – underlines Krzysztof Tabiszewski. This is also a great opportunity to practice team work, learn how to gain a sponsorship, present your own ideas in a way that leads to collecting money at the end. Krzysztof Tabiszewski dreams about running his own company that could continue work on Hyperloop together with Warsaw University of Technology. Rumour has it that the second edition of  the contest is being planned. It could help to improve solutions already existed.