WARR Hyperloop from the Technical University of Munich bagged the top prize at the third annual SpaceX pod competition on Sunday. According to @Hyperloop, the official Twitter account for the annual SpaceX competition, team WARR Hyperloop’s pod reached a top speed of 457 kmph (284 mph).
WARR Hyperloop was one of the three finalists in the SpaceX competition. Participants were required to develop a self-propelled pod that goes down the 1.2-kilometre-long Hyperloop tube. Built by SpaceX, the Hyperloop tube is Elon Musk’s futuristic vision for high-speed transportation. The pod that goes the fastest wins. Competing with WARR were teams from Delft University from the Netherlands and EPF Loop from Switzerland.
https://twitter.com/Hyperloop/status/1021174798758526976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
SpaceX held the competition at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California on July 22. According to a report by The Verge, engineering students joined to watch the competition in the hundreds on Jack Northrop Avenue. The air around the event resembled that of a cheerful summer music festival. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX made an unexpected appearance.
It’s a hat-trick for WARR Hyperloop as the team bagged the top prize for the third time in a row. The team took home the top prize in January and August 2017. WARR Hyperloop’s pod is a 70-kilogramme carbon fibre one that’s powered by a 50kW electric motor. It’s brought to halt within five seconds by pneumatic friction brakes. The pods of Delft University and EPF Loop hit a top speed of 142 kmph (88 mph) and 88.5 kmph (55 mph) respectively before facing a number of technical complications.