4 ms·

Problems: Digging a tunnel takes years and cost billions (see London underground new tunnel http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16320945 http://www.bbc.co.uk/ne

Problems: Digging a tunnel takes years and cost billions (see London underground new tunnel http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16320945 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16320945) Making the tunnel fit the carrage = no room for emergency Security (terrorists + bomb = nightmare at speed of sound) Windows? What would you look at? If he thinking of just goods (not people) then some of these problems are much simpler - the tunnel could be less than 1m in radius. My wild idea is that he is going to us a rail gun to fire drones up a couple of KM into the air, these then glide down to mini airports. Replace freight railroads.

Volpe 14y ago
Terrorists + bomb = nightmare (regardless of speed). By this logic Planes are a bad idea too (no room for emergency, high speed, tiny windows with nothing to look at)...
jacquesm 14y ago
You don't have to dig. Just place the metal shell on posts like an oil pipeline.
- Swannie 14y ago
  People don't like windmills because they are "ugly". They don't like power-lines in the country side. They certainly wouldn't like a 2.5M+ diameter tube running around. In London, 56% (IIRC) of the "Underground" is above ground, much of that above road level.
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    It beats looking at a 6 laner highway! And you could burry it halfway and still have easy access.
  - monk_e_boy 14y ago
    we have a lot of wind turbines where I live. You get a strobe sounds of wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh if you are down wind of them. They are noisy. Also, if the sunlight catches them you also get a strobe reflection off them. That is also horrible. There is a farmer who has 2 turbines up, he lives on the far side of a hill about a km away - you can still hear those whoosh-whoosh-whoosh all day long. Painful. Powerlines also run over a lot of campsites near my house, you can hear them hummmmmm and crackle. In the damp/rain/mist/fog you can hear a lot of crackling and humming from them. I can understand why people get angry with them. In urban areas where there is a lot of noise, I guess you wouldn't notice it so much. Off topic, but my sister worked in a place where they put the magnets into wind turbines. There was a loud crash one day, someone had a magnet on a pallet, lifted it with a forklift and drove it out to a van. Half way the magnet got sucked by another magnet (in one of the factories) and burst through the wall and the two clamped together. They never got them apart and had to take the remaining bits of the turbine apart from around them.
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      > Off topic, but my sister worked in a place where they put the magnets into wind turbines. There was a loud crash one day, someone had a magnet on a pallet, lifted it with a forklift and drove it out to a van. Half way the magnet got sucked by another magnet (in one of the factories) and burst through the wall and the two clamped together. They never got them apart and had to take the remaining bits of the turbine apart from around them. What city was this in? Which manufacturer?
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  That's not it. From this article about Musk going to the UK[0], "it also can’t have a right of way issue, where people have to give up their homes." Your idea would be no different from high-speed rail in that regard. 0: http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/elon-musk-with-jobs-gone-google-will-win-mobile-and-look-out-for-the-hyperloop/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/elon-musk-with-jobs-gone-go...
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    Ah, good catch! Now I'm really curious...
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      How about underground? Pretty capital intensive and a lot more work than aboveground but it would get around the right-of-way issues. Access at various intervals would be very expensive though. But at least it would be possible (with a space based loop not so much).
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        Musk also said it would cost less than going by plane. Unless he has some novel approach to creating underground tunnels that's radically cheaper than existing methods, I don't see how this could be possible.

Volpe 14y ago

Terrorists + bomb = nightmare (regardless of speed). By this logic Planes are a bad idea too (no room for emergency, high speed, tiny windows with nothing to look at)...

jacquesm 14y ago

You don't have to dig. Just place the metal shell on posts like an oil pipeline.

Swannie 14y ago
People don't like windmills because they are "ugly". They don't like power-lines in the country side. They certainly wouldn't like a 2.5M+ diameter tube running around. In London, 56% (IIRC) of the "Underground" is above ground, much of that above road level.
- jacquesm 14y ago
  It beats looking at a 6 laner highway! And you could burry it halfway and still have easy access.
- monk_e_boy 14y ago
  we have a lot of wind turbines where I live. You get a strobe sounds of wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh if you are down wind of them. They are noisy. Also, if the sunlight catches them you also get a strobe reflection off them. That is also horrible. There is a farmer who has 2 turbines up, he lives on the far side of a hill about a km away - you can still hear those whoosh-whoosh-whoosh all day long. Painful. Powerlines also run over a lot of campsites near my house, you can hear them hummmmmm and crackle. In the damp/rain/mist/fog you can hear a lot of crackling and humming from them. I can understand why people get angry with them. In urban areas where there is a lot of noise, I guess you wouldn't notice it so much. Off topic, but my sister worked in a place where they put the magnets into wind turbines. There was a loud crash one day, someone had a magnet on a pallet, lifted it with a forklift and drove it out to a van. Half way the magnet got sucked by another magnet (in one of the factories) and burst through the wall and the two clamped together. They never got them apart and had to take the remaining bits of the turbine apart from around them.
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    > Off topic, but my sister worked in a place where they put the magnets into wind turbines. There was a loud crash one day, someone had a magnet on a pallet, lifted it with a forklift and drove it out to a van. Half way the magnet got sucked by another magnet (in one of the factories) and burst through the wall and the two clamped together. They never got them apart and had to take the remaining bits of the turbine apart from around them. What city was this in? Which manufacturer?
w1ntermute 14y ago
That's not it. From this article about Musk going to the UK[0], "it also can’t have a right of way issue, where people have to give up their homes." Your idea would be no different from high-speed rail in that regard. 0: http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/elon-musk-with-jobs-gone-google-will-win-mobile-and-look-out-for-the-hyperloop/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/19/elon-musk-with-jobs-gone-go...
- jacquesm 14y ago
  Ah, good catch! Now I'm really curious...
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    How about underground? Pretty capital intensive and a lot more work than aboveground but it would get around the right-of-way issues. Access at various intervals would be very expensive though. But at least it would be possible (with a space based loop not so much).
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      Musk also said it would cost less than going by plane. Unless he has some novel approach to creating underground tunnels that's radically cheaper than existing methods, I don't see how this could be possible.