21-Jun-2019

BayernLB helps fund Hyperloop project at Technical University of Munich

BayernLB now a sponsor of the award-winning TUM engineering team

Munich – What might a futuristic transportation system look like? This is a question that TUM Hyperloop, a project team of students at the Technical University of Munich, is tackling. The team is namely researching and developing, with the aid of sponsors, a so-called Hyperloop, or high-speed tunnel transportation system. BayernLB is helping to fund further research activities as a sponsor.

“We support projects for developing future modes of transportation as infrastructure and mobility financing is one of our core competencies,” said Dr Christoph Fischer, head of BayernLB’s Global Structured and Trade Finance division. “We’re also very impressed by the interdisciplinary research done at TUM Hyperloop. This is an exciting opportunity for us to contribute towards a future-oriented project while also helping our home region of Bavaria.”

The idea of a Hyperloop was first proposed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In order to make this vision a reality, Musk’s SpaceX rocket-manufacturing company launched an annual “Hyperloop Pod Competition” in 2015. This event attracts a large number of student-led teams, mostly from universities, vying for the grand prize with their self-developed technology. Munich’s Hyperloop team has already won the competition three times. The TUM Hyperloop team com-prises students of mechanical engineering, physics, electronics, computer science, aeronautics and aerospace, and business, among other fields.

The Hyperloop is an innovative transportation concept involving a pod, or train capsule, that moves at high speeds through a vacuum tube. Researchers are aiming for a velocity range of somewhere around 800 km/h to just under the speed of sound. In the 2018 competition TUM Hyperloop achieved a velocity of 467 km/h, leaving its rivals behind at a comfortable distance. This year the team is looking to break its own record with a speed of 600 km/h.