The high-tech corporation announced plans to build a development facility in Andalusia, Spain, to develop, test and certify company products. The facility will cost half a billion US dollars. It’s not the only hyperloop development facility in the area either. Last year, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies announced they were opening a facility in France.
Hyperloop technology entails plans to combine air and land travel to make high-speed, low-cost traveling available to the general public. Hyperloop vehicles will pass through special tunnels with reduced air to limit friction, thereby ensuring high speeds. Passengers will travel on something like air pods, which will be powered through sun panels on top of the tunnels.
Safety comes first for Virgin Hyperloop One, one of the pioneers of this technology. The company has been testing and improving it over the past few years. It has developed the only full-scale hyperloop system worldwide. The center in Spain is intended to help deliver the first commercially viable projects.
With its new Spanish test facility, Virgin Hyperloop One becomes yet another tech companies working in this area. The company reports that the region hosts almost 10,000 firms focused on transport and logistics. The second-biggest aerospace cluster in Spain is home to 20,000 employees in research and development.
Spain is the perfect choice for Virgin’s development and testing center with its robust transportation, high-tech, and aerospace sectors combined with highly-skilled local labor, according to company CEO Rob Lloyd.
