Superjet: France To Australia In 4+ Hours
A2
(AFP) - British engineers unveiled plans Tuesday for a hypersonic jet which could fly from Europe to Australia in less than five hours.
The A2 plane, designed by engineering company Reaction Engines based in Oxfordshire, southern England, could carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000 mph (6,400 kmh), five times the speed of sound.
The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project, backed by the European Space Agency, could see the plane operating within 25 years, the firm’s boss Alan Bond told the Guardian daily.
“The A2 is designed to leave Brussels or Paris international airport, fly quietly and subsonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia,” he said.
The plane, which at 143 metres (169 feeet) long would be about twice the size of the biggest current jets, could fly non-stop for up to 12,500 miles (20,000 km).
It operates on liquid hydrogen, which is more ecologically friendly as it gives off water and nitrous oxide instead of carbon emissions.
Passengers would have to put up with having no windows, due to problems with heat produced at high speeds. Instead designers may put flat screen televisions where the windows would be, giving the impression of seeing outside.
Fares would be comparable with current first class tickets on standard flights, of around 3,500 pounds (4,700 euros, 6,900 dollars).
The flight time from Brussels to Australia would be four hours and 40 minutes. “It sounds incredible by today’s standards but I don’t see why future generations can’t make day trips to Australasia,” he said.
“Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it’s up to the world to decide if it wants it.”
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We’ve been doing something similar, I think they’re calling it the hyper-space plane.
February 5th, 2008 at 4:26 amyeah,super, I might get a “kangaru curry” for supper
It operates on liquid hydrogen, which is more ecologically friendly as it gives off water and nitrous oxide instead of carbon emissions.
the Air-bus 380 is actually making tests with hydrogen, seems that works OK
February 5th, 2008 at 5:28 amThese stories always make me laugh, liquid hydrogen, what a joke. Most people have no idea how expensive liquid hydrogen is to produce and how explosive it is and difficult ot handle. This story is just like the idiotic popular science articles that predicted we would all have flying cars by now and other crazy ideas. The fact is hydrogen takes far more energy to produce and handle and transport than it generates vs. fossil fuels which exist naturally in nature. This fact alone illustrates that hydrogen as a fuel is not green at all.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:22 amProfessor Bill
that seems silly by now, but from 2015 it’ll begin to get effective and more probably from 2025 to 2030, cause kerozen would be so out of price and the sources for oil are going to dry up.
well, for airbus, it’s more accurate to say there were synthetic gas tests :
http://www.eads.net/1024/en/pressdb/pressdb/Airbus/20080201_airbus_alternative_fuel_success.html
February 5th, 2008 at 8:16 amWithin a few decades, quick-strike contingency forces (i.e. Airborne & Marine) might use such technology to make petty thugs and dictators regret ever trying to fuck with the USA.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:59 pmDidn’t the Hindenberg operate using hydrogen?
February 5th, 2008 at 2:52 pmjtp
yeah, but that was more than 60 years ago ;
there has been lots of progresses sinces
BTW, the NASA is associated to the researches
February 5th, 2008 at 3:11 pmhydrogen is just as dangerous now as it was sixty years ago…
February 5th, 2008 at 6:48 pmyes it is, they are trying to find an easiest way to stock it, freezing… etc.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:23 am