Many will remember the Hendo Hoverboard, which was a real hoverboard, one that didn't have any wheels and used magnets to hover above a special surface.
Well, the company behind the Hendo Hoverboard, Arx Pax, is now venturing into a different market — the Hyperloop.
Arx Pax announced last year that it wanted to sell its hover engines to Hyperloop designers, and the company has now announced that it is in talks with two Los Angeles-based companies that are building their own versions of the Hyperloop. Not only that, but the company is also helping participants in the Hyperloop design competition that is set to take place in Texas next week.
The move isn't totally surprising. Arx Pax has always said that it had bigger ambitions than making hoverboards, and the Hyperloop is Elon Musk's vision to transform the transportation industry.
In fact, Arx Pax has even designed its own Hyperloop pod, which looks very sleek. The company will be one of five to show off its pod design at the competition, which will be held at the Texas A&M University on Jan. 29-30. Some 1,000 high school and college students on 124 teams will also show off their designs, hoping to win $50,000.
"Our hover engines are being purchased for use, along with our developer kits, for use in SpaceX's test facility they're building in Hawthorne, California," said Arx Pax founder Greg Henderson. "It's so exciting, because while there are other things that can hover, no other form of magnetic levitation, or any sort of levitation for that matter, comes with its own inherent method of propulsion and control. This is a brand-new tool for anyone interested in moving people or objects."
Hover engines provide an integrated system, based on the company's magnetic field architecture, for propulsion, braking, guidance and levitation. They can move omni-directionally — forward, backward and sideways while simultaneously rotating or pivoting in place. With MFA, there is no physical contact with the ground, a press release explains, so friction does not exist. "MFA reduces the complexity and lowers the cost of tracked systems because all it needs is a passive metal surface over which to levitate," the company says. It remains to be seen what the infrastructure costs of maglev technology will run.
Arx Pax is selling its hover engines for $20,000 for a pack of four, and while that might seem a little pricey, Henderson says that the company is having some trouble keeping up with demand, and that there is currently a wait list.
Via: The Verge
