Tesla founder Elon Musk announced on Twitter that he will reveal the design of his "Hyperloop" on August 12.

The Hyperloop is a transportation system Musk has been talking about for over a year now.

He claims that it will be able to get people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. He described it as a "cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table."

On Twitter, Musk says he's going to make the design for the Hyperloop open for anyone to use. "I really hate patents unless critical to company survival," says Musk. "Will publish Hyperloop as open source."

He was asked if he plans to commericalize it, or just work with partners. He said, "Happy to work with the right partners. Must truly share philosophical goal of breakthrough tech done fast & w/o wasting money on BS."

What is the Hyperloop? We'll find out in exact detail soon enough.

However, we found a 1972 paper from R.M. Salter, a researcher at the Rand Corporation that seemed to fit with what Musk was talking about.

Salter called for a Very High Speed Transit System, or VHST.

"The general principles are fairly straightforward: electromagnetically levitated and propelled cars in an evacuated tunnel," wrote Salter.

Salter's vision was a series of vaccuum sealed tubes that would send people across the country in a matter of minutes.

Salter explained how it could work by saying, "The VHST's 'tubecraft' ride on, and are driven by, electromagnetic waves much as a surfboard rides the ocean's wave. The EM waves are generated by pulsed, or by oscillating, currents in electrical conductors that form the roadbed structure in the evacuated tube way. Opposing magnetic fields in the vehicle are generated means of a loop superconducting cable carrying on the order of a million amperes of current."

Here are the tweets from Musk:

Will publish Hyperloop alpha design by Aug 12. Critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013





@ehreng happy to work with the right partners. Must truly share philosophical goal of breakthrough tech done fast & w/o wasting money on BS — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013

@schadlu I really hate patents unless critical to company survival. Will publish Hyperloop as open source. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2013