Aircraft flies New York to London in 11 minutes
Currently is takes about seven hours to fly from New York to London.But what if we told you that you could make a trip across the Atlantic in 11 minutes?
That’s the radical plan of industrial designer Charles Bombardier, who's newest concept aircraft could transport passengers at speeds 12 times faster than the Concorde.
What is it?
Mr Bombardier’s design is called the Antipode, a supersonic business aircraft that’s capable of reaching speeds of over 25,000 km/h. Under the current concept, the Antipode would be able to carry a maximum of 10 passengers at supersonic speeds.
Mr Bombardier told Forbes, "I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode - or diametrical opposite - as fast as possible.”
How does it work?
Under the current concept, the Antipode’s wings are fitted with rocket boosters that propel the aircraft to 40,000 feet and in doing so achieving Mach 5.
At this altitude the aircraft’s onboard computer ignites its scramjet engine that sees the Antipode accelerate to Mach 24.
The Antipode would then use a phenomenon called LPM to cool and slow the aircraft with the counter-flow of air, eventually letting the craft glide and land on a two kilometre runway.
Is it feasible?
Well, at this stage there is still some way to go. And this is mostly due to the fact that the technology in the design is still probably decades away from seeing the light of day.
Even NASA hasn’t created a stable scramjet yet, so the prospect of being able to transport commercial passengers with this technology is still at its hypothetical stages.
But as Mr Bombardier says in a video on his site, design is continually evolving and we don’t really know what is around the corner, “It's all about innovation. Share your idea, and it opens up a door for other designers to build on it.”
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