Turian is the name of the Hyperloop UPV prototype that won the Innovation Award at the Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019 in Los Angeles, California. A pod made by a team of engineering students from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has ranked among the top 8 prototypes during the fourth edition of the competition organised by Space X and The Boring Company. Federico Abascal, a former student from the Undergraduate Degree in Transport Design at the IED Barcelona, led the team in charge of designing the exterior of the Turian Hyperloop concept.
“Hyperloop is the transport of the future. A prototype that shows where society is heading and guides the improvements we should propose for a sustainable and truly innovative future,” explained the Abscal. This new form of transportation conceived by Elon Musk and Space X would enable goods and passengers to move at over 1000 km per hour in pods that are suspended inside low-pressure tubes requiring less energy than any other means of transport. With this new system came the Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019, which emerged as an international contest for universities that aim to drive innovation and shape the future of mobility.
The prototype features over 1000 parts and pieces surrounded by a carbon fibre shell. Weighing just 96 kg, it houses 500 sensors to measure every operating parameter and can do 0 to 100 km/h in under 2 seconds. In terms of design, the pod stands out for its “smooth, speedy and curvy” shapes, especially at the shoulders which the designer describes as “wild and aggressive”. Federico has been involved in the entire design development process: from conception, sketching and rendering to modelling and graphic communication. “The challenge in design terms lay in the aerodynamic part and ensuring production viability, since it is a prototype that moves at around 500 km/h,” revealed Federico. It was also crucial to come up with a compact design to fit inside the Hyperloop tunnels and ensure that production would actually be feasible.
