Space firm launches R&D on hyperloop

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, one of the nation's major space contractors, announced that it has launched research and development into a futuristic ultrafast transport system popularly known as a hyperloop, in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Wednesday.

The CASIC hyperloop will be a maglev line on which a streamlined, engineless train will travel on partly elevated tubes or tunnels at superfast speeds reaching 1,000 kilometers per hour, according to a news release published by the company at the Third China International Commercial Aerospace Forum in Wuhan.

CASIC is the first Chinese enterprise and the world's third, following the United States' Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and Hyperloop One, that has started developing a hyperloop system capable of reaching 1,000 km/h. The project will benefit from the company's experience in systems engineering and supersonic vehicles, CASIC said.