(Charles Bombardier/Imaginactive)
As the age of supersonic travel fast approaches, there is yet another concept aircraft that promises to go from New York to London in an unbelievable 11 minutes.
Called the Antipode, it would be powered by rocket boosters on its wings for takeoff and climb to 40,000 feet at Mach 5.
The acceleration boosters would then separate from the Antipode and fly back to the air base by themselves. If that’s not impressive enough, the Antipode pilot would then ignite its supersonic engines to hit Mach 24 – or speeds of 12,427 miles an hour, reports Forbes.
The jet would be powered by liquid oxygen or kerosene rockets and in theory, it could carry up to 10 passengers.
Its designers say it would take a mere 11 minutes to fly from New York to London, 24 minutes to travel from New York to Shanghai and 32 minutes to get from New York to Sydney.
The industrial engineer behind the Antipode is Charles Bombardier, who designed another high-speed aircraft called the Skreemr jet – which was unveiled in October and claims to travel from London to New York in a half an hour.
(Charles Bombardier/Imaginactive)
Bombardier worked on the Antipode design in collaboration with Lunatic Koncepts founder Abhishek Roy.
To achieve speeds past Mach 5, the engineers had to solve the problem of extreme heat from air friction and the massive sonic boom it would create over land. Objects traveling at that speed can reach upwards of 170 F, and there are few materials that can sustain those temperatures.
To combat these effects, the hypersonic jet would use an aerodynamic technique called long penetration mode (LPM) that would channel air flowing over the aircraft, cooling it down and helping to muffle the noise as it breaks the sound barrier.
“I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode — or diametrical opposite — as fast as possible,” Bombardier told Forbes.
Right now the design is just that—a design. But Bombardier hopes the aircraft could be used for military or business travelers. Let’s hope it comes with a frequent flier program, because the costs will be out of this world.
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