Imagine you could beam yourself from London to New York, wouldn’t that be great? OK, maybe a one hour trip is not the same thing with teleportation, but it’s quite close if Airbus’ newly patented aircraft ever comes out of the hangar. We’re talking about traveling speeds of Mach 4.5 which for all the non-aviators out there means four and a half times the speed of sound.
Since we’re in such hurry these days, it comes naturally for a giant aircraft maker like Airbus to think of faster means of transportation. Thinking does not always mean it will happen, but we’re all allowed to dream, aren’t we?
Airbus has recently filed a patent for a supersonic, “ultra-rapid” plane that would make traveling half way around the world a true joyride, one that wouldn’t take longer than three hours. This reminds us of the famed Concorde aircraft. The turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet airliner was in service from 1976 to 2003. It is one of only two that ever entered commercial service, with the Russian replica being the other.
Even so, the Anglo-French airplane featured a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04, which would still be only half of what Airbus is proposing with their patent. Yes, yes, but how?
“The air vehicle is propelled by a system of motors formed of turbojets, ramjets and a rocket engine which can be made streamlined to reduce the drag of the base during the cruise phase, and where the vehicle has gothic delta wing fitted with moving fins at both outer ends of the trailing edge of the delta wing.“
Right. So there’s this futuristic design and a pair of super-powerful engines that propel the beast so fast it takes longer to check in at the airport than to get from point A to point B.
Furthermore, there’s always PatentYogi’s explanations on Youtube, if you want to find out more. Until there’s an official announcement, however, we can’t take anything for granted.
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