New York - It is part rocket, part plane, has been dubbed ‘Son of Concorde’ and could one day fly you from London to New York in just an hour.
Airbus, the European passenger plane maker, has patented designs for a hypersonic jet it expects to reach speeds of up to Mach 4.5 – four and a half times the speed of sound. That’s up to 3 500mph.
The design describes the craft as an “air vehicle including a gothic delta wing”, a similar wing shape to that used on Concorde.
It would be powered by three different types of engine that Airbus suggests will use hydrogen fuel.
They would be used in sequence to get the plane aloft, then to cruising altitude and finally up to cruising speed of nearly 3 500mph. Two turbo jets mounted under the fuselage would allow the plane to take off conventionally from a runway.
Just before it reached the speed of sound, the turbojets would shut off and retract into the plane’s belly. A rocket motor mounted at the rear would then kick in and take the plane up vertically like a rocket at supersonic speeds.
When it had reached an altitude of more than 100 000ft, far above a 747’s usual cruising height of 42 000ft, the rocket engine would also shut down and retract into the plane. A third engine – a pair of wing-mounted ramjets, a type of engine used in missiles – would then take over and propel the plane to its staggering top speed.
The turbo jets would be switched back on at the end of the flight to enable the plane to land conventionally.
Passengers and crew will be sit in suspended hammock-style seats for increased comfort. Unfortunately, the patented design – which has been approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office in New York – would have room for just 20 passengers sitting four across. That would make it probably an option only for the very rich.
Airbus and the plane’s two French inventors believe the patented craft would be able to make long-distance trips such as Paris to San Francisco or Tokyo to Los Angeles in less than three hours.
The Airbus patent also suggests a military use for strategic reconnaissance and “ultra-rapid transport of high added-value goods or elite commandos”. The height at which the aircraft would fly gives it “almost total invulnerability to conventional anti-aircraft systems”.
Daily Mail