“It’s somewhere of a mix between a rocket and an airplane.”
A European company is aiming to develop a hypersonic passenger aircraft that can fly from New York to London in just 90 minutes.
Of course, it wasn’t that long ago that you could make the trip across the pond in as little as three and a half hours, when Concorde was in operation.
But just over two decades ago, Air France retired the aircraft from service due to safety concerns and operating costs.
So for years, passengers have had to accept flights to New York that take almost eight hours, and the world has not seen a commercial supersonic aircraft since.
A European company is hoping to change this though.
Startup Destinus has revealed its plans for a hypersonic passenger plane that would be able to travel roughly five times the speed of sound.
The aircraft will use liquid hydrogen fuel and ramjet engines for power. Meanwhile and turbo will be combined with an afterburner to take the jet from the sedentary pace of subsonic to supersonic speeds.
And a ramjet will then take it to the unprecedented pace of hypersonic.
The use of hydrogen fuel is a very deliberate choice, as hydrogen is an effective cooling agent. So, this will ensure the aircraft doesn’t overheat.
In fact, Löfqvist described hydrogen power as being “the core of the company,” saying that it is three times more efficient than traditional jet fuel and doesn’t release carbon emissions.
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