built for an earlier competition, although this one is wider and shorter than SpaceX's."/>

Hyperloop One claims that its prototype ultra-fast train has completed a first full systems test in a vacuum, reaching a speed of 70 mph. The sled was able to magnetically levitate on the track for 5.3 seconds and “reached nearly 2Gs of acceleration,” according to the company.

The test was conducted privately but Hyperloop One offered some video that included footage from testing . Based on that footage plus a few seconds of additional b-roll shared with media, a lightweight skeleton sled uses a linear motor to accelerate, levitates briefly, and then comes to a halt as the brakes are applied.

Hyperloop One was created as an answer to a challenge from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who wrote a white paper envisioning a mode of transportation that would send pods at speeds greater than 700mph using a low-friction environment and levitation using air bearings. Musk said he didn’t have time to see the idea to fruition, but SpaceX has hosted ongoing competitions for student and professional teams to show off pod design and execution. Hyperloop One and other startups have also formed to tackle the idea from a VC-funded or volunteer angle.

Hyperloop One seems to have generated the most hype so far though. The startup has received support and investment funding from prominent companies in shipping and cargo management, and it’s been weathering a bizarre scandal involving some of its founding employees, including former CTO Brogan BamBrogan.

Through it all, however, Hyperloop One had been able to build test tracks in Nevada. It did an open-air test in 2016 and then built the 11-ft diameter vacuum tube for tests in the spring of 2017. The test track is 500m long, or about a third of a mile.

The startup said the privately conducted full systems test happened on May 12, 2017, and a spokesperson for the company told Ars that test results are being reported now because Hyperloop One is ending Phase 1 of testing and entering Phase 2, where the prototype vehicle will be pushed to 250 mph.

In a press release, the company wrote: “Hyperloop One tested all the system's components, including its highly efficient motor, vehicle suspension, magnetic levitation, electromagnetic braking, vacuum pumping system and more, proving the full system's components operate successfully as a single integrated unit in a vacuum. Nearly 200 engineers, fabricators, welders, etc. dedicated thousands of hours to make this test successful.”

A similar test held by SpaceX back in January hosted student and professional teams that were allowed to run prototype pods on a test track the space company built by the side of a road in Los Angeles. The teams benefitted from a “pusher” vehicle that got the prototype pods up to speed. Hyperloop One has the advantage of being the only group that uses its test track, so it can build its track and test sled to work together.

Hyperloop One

Hyperloop One

Hyperloop One also circulated a number of pictures today of a new prototype pod that uses a “proprietary linear electric motor” and “achieves autonomous high-speed propulsion and levitation in a controlled low-pressure environment.”

“Made of structural aluminum and a lightweight carbon fiber, the shell measures 28 feet long,” Hyperloop One writes. The company says that it will continue to run tests as it lengthens the track during Phase 2 testing.

Correction: Elon Musk's original idea for the Hyperloop relied on air bearings, not magnetic levitation.