Hyperloop One sets up development centre in North Las Vegas

Rob Lloyd, chief operating officer, Hyperloop One, yesterday released the first images of its development site in North Las Vegas at a rail conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The images revealed at the 11th annual Middle East Rail Dubai conference offered an aerial view of how the construction was progressing at the test site.

At its Apex site in North Las Vegas, the company had built The DevLoop, which is 1,640-feet-long and almost 11 feet in diameter.

Hyperloop One will perform a public trial sometime during the first half of the year.

Hyperloop One acquired 50 acres of land at Apex in 2015, where it set up a 105,000-square-foot manufacturing plant, Hyperloop One Metalworks last summer.

Hyperloop One would start transporting freight through its tubes by 2020 and people at speeds faster than a jumbo jet by 2021.

Sharing the company's vision, Lloyd said, ''While technology is revolutionizing many facets of our lives, we have not seen a radical change in transportation since the Wright brothers introduced air travel over 100 years ago.''

Lloyd was joined by Josh Giegel, president of engineering and co-founder of Hyperloop One, at Middle East Rail via video from the DevLoop location.

''I am so excited to be able to share images of DevLoop at Middle East Rail and update the world on our progress,'' Giegel said.

In its press release Hyperloop One said that the progress on the DevLoop should show how close the startup was to making the system a reality. According to the startup, the Hyperloop would cut the commuting time between Dubai and Abu Dhabi from several hours to just 12 minutes.

Hyperloop One said, it had secured $50 million in a funding round led by DP World, the third largest port and terminal operator in the world, which brought its total funding to $160 million.