WHAT was supposed to be one the most exciting transport projects in a generation could unravel due to a bitter tit-for-tat legal battle between company execs and former staff including the company’s co-founder.

In 2013 Elon Musk outlined his revolutionary idea for a bullet train system — consisting of a solar powered tube and levitating pods — that could theoretically shoot passengers between cities at speeds close to the speed of sound. The Tesla and Space X CEO said he was too busy to build it himself so he threw it open to the public along with a 58 page paper outlining his idea.

Hyperloop, which later changed its name to Hyperloop One, was one of two main groups to take on the project and is easily the most promising.

In May the company announced a fresh $US80 million ($A108m) round of funding which included adding a French national rail company to its growing list of backers.

In the same month Hyperloop One carried out its first demonstration of the early stages of the development of the technology in a milestone event.

However an extraordinary legal battle involving accusations of nepotism, death threats, drunkenness and sexism threatens to derail the project.

Last week the company’s co-founder and former CTO Brogan BamBrogan, and three other former employees, filed a lawsuit accusing company execs of mismanagement, nepotism and threatening behaviour.

The suit which is claiming unspecified damaged claims the “technological promise” of the system “is being strangled by the mismanagement and greed of the venture capitalists who control the company.”

Included in the list of crazy grievances is an allegation that general counsel Afshin Pishevar left a noose on BamBrogan’s desk and Shervin Pishevar, the company’s other co-founder, flagrantly overpaid the company’s head of PR after she became his fiancee.

In the latest twist to the melodrama, Hyperloop One has now launched a $US250m counter suit against the plaintiffs calling their action a “sham complaint”.

Instead of a noose, it was simply “a rope tied with a lasso knot” because BamBrogan is known for his cowboy persona.

And as for that pay rise from $15,000 to $40,000 a month, that’s just was just bringing Pishevar’s fiancee into line with her firm’s standard monthly pay rate.

Of course, the countersuit contains its own grievances and accuses BamBrogan and the three other plaintiffs of conspiring to take over the company through a “co-ordinated coup”.

It also claims BamBrogan had a penchant for “profane, erratic, sexist, and inebriated outbursts.”

According to the text in the suit, he is “egomaniacal and greedy,” and once told a friend visiting the office, “can you believe all these bitches work for me?”

While the very public row shows no signs of abating anytime soon, it has led some to speculate negatively about the future of the company.

WHAT IS HYPERLOOP?

The ridiculous nature of the legal dispute could spook investors and derail the project but the Hyperloop One start-up remains one of the most hyped in Silicon Valley, at least in part for being the brainchild of Elon Musk.

So how does it work?

The company will rely on a passive magnetic levitation system developed by Lawrence Livermore National Labs.

According to the science that underpins the project, magnetic fields in the tunnel will lift the pod before a “thrust force” is applied, which will then accelerate it to speeds of up to 1230km/h. When the same force is applied for breaking the pod, the system’s battery is recharged through regenerative braking.

“Using a passive levitation system will eliminate the need for power stations along the Hyperloop track, which makes this system the most suitable for the application and will keep construction costs low,” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies COO Bibop Gresta said earlier in the year.

“From a safety aspect, the system has huge advantages, levitation occurs purely through movement, therefore, if any type of power failure occurs, Hyperloop pods would continue to levitate and only after reaching minimal speeds touch the ground,” he added.