In an effort to make airline travel eclipse the speed of the ill-fated Concorde, the European Union has agreed to fund the second phase of European Space Agency-led studies into a hypersonic civil transport. We’re talking 2 hours from Brussels to Sydney here folks. Sure, this thing is only for the rich (and daring), but the ideas behind the technology are compelling. The A2 hyperairliner would be able to carry about 300 people.
So, how fast will you go? Well, how about faster than current spy planes? From the article,
“The company describes this technology as “essentially a… rocket engine with an additional precooled turbo-compressor”. Reaction Engines reckon the use of almost-liquefied air from the turbo will allow Scimitar/Sabre propulsion to operate without onboard liquid oxygen up to Mach 5.5. Unlike a ramjet or scramjet, this kind of engine can fire up happily while stationary on the runway, too, removing the need for a separate booster to get up to ignition speed.”
There’s even a Mach 8 engine on the drawing board.
To make everyone feel all green and warm inside, the hydrogen will be sourced from carbon-friendly electrolysis. Industrial grade hydrogen (made by steam reforming with natural gas) is quite emissions intensive — not to mention dependent on a fossil fuel.
Of course, this is all research — but $14.5 million is behind the concept. Who knows how much the final product — or tickets — will cost.
via The Register
5 Comments
Sweet, don’t care how fast it goes, just interesting that it runs on hydrogen.
How carbon-friendly is electrolysis, exactly? Surely isolating hydrogen by electrolysis takes massive amounts of electricity?
Nice dream, but it’s difficult to see this ever coming to fruition without developing economical ways of manufacturing and distributing hydrogen (the same problem exists with all hydrogen-based transport proposals).
hm, cant relly belive how this think can take off with this small wings at the picture. and there would be only time for 1 in-flight movie
Hydrogen can be produced by simply adding water to activated aluminum.
http://www.instructables.com/id/SODA-CAN-HYDROGEN-GENERATOR/
2 Trackbacks
[...] The trick here is to develop a special engine they’re calling Scimitar, capable of thrusting the craft to those rocket-like speeds. It will be a rocket engine with a turbo compressor added, without needing liquid oxygen like those used in the boosters that send spacecraft into orbit. Such an engine is also capable of slower flight, allowing the aircraft to fly over land where supersonic speeds aren’t permitted because of sonic booms. The researchers are proposing a big plane, too. Check out the A2’s size next to the gigantic Airbus A380 in the graphic above. This A2 hyperliner is big enough for 300 passengers, and the engineers are hoping to make it cost-effective enough for tickets to ride on the huge plane to cost about the same as a normal business class seat does today. [The Register, via Ecotality Life] [...]
[...] [Source: Ecotality Life] [...]