Billionaire philanthropist Elon Musk hopes to introduce a new form of transportation to compete with planes and trains.

The new technology, called Hyperloop, would consist of a tube with Concorde-like seating inside able to send passengers at 760 miles an hour on a cushion of compressed air.

The tubes would be launched by a rail gun type launcher. The tube would shoot through an elevated structure with pods mounted above the ground on columns 50 to 100 yards (45 to 91 metres) apart or through an underground tunnel, using a maglev like system, like the "floating force" of an air hockey table.

A proposed line from Los Angeles to San Francisco would cost $7.5 billion to build. The tubes would be at least three times faster than a bullet train and twice as fast as an airplane.

Powered by solar technology, the transport would also be cheaper than conventional methods.

The 'Hyperloop', designed to link cities less than 1,000 miles apart, could cover the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco in about 35 minutes.