More than 15 years after the last flight of the Concorde, Boeing is set to bring back high speed travel to new heights.
Boeing, a corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, is working out plans for a new hypersonic passenger aircraft.
The aircraft looks straight out of a science fiction movie. It would have a potential top speed of over 3,800 mph, which is five times the speed of sound.
Impressive Speed
Reaching such speed would allow the hypersonic aircraft to complete a trip across the Atlantic in just 120 minutes, while a flight across the Pacific would take around three hours.
The projected speed of the aircraft would smash the record for crossing the atlantic by a commercial jet held by Concorde at two hours and 52 minutes. A traditional flight between London and New York usually takes six hours and 45 minutes, but flying on the hypersonic aircraft would significantly decrease the time.
Boeing's chief scientist of hypersonics Kevin Bowcutt told Aviation Week that the question of how fast do people want to go and how fast is fast enough is always being asked.
He added that supersonic is not fast enough to go overseas, and be back in one day. However, with the hypersonic's Mach 5 speed, people can do just that. For the military, or business travelers, who consider time very important, that is an interesting point.
People who are itching to buy a ticket on the hypersonic aircraft would have to wait some time. According to Boeing, it hopes that the said aircraft will be ready by late 2030s at the earliest, and said that it could even be delayed for up to a decade.
Recently, Boeing has upped its game in its research about hypersonic flight. Additionally, they have released designs for an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, military jet that is capable of reaching Mach 5 last January.
Bowcutt said that these studies are essential to push the technology needed to advance things. Technologically, Boeing could manufacture a hypersonic aircraft such as an ISR in 10 years.
There are also numerous things to consider in a commercial plane which includes regulatory and environmental requirements, and the market.
Other Studies Of Fast Speed Aircrafts
Last February, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences claimed that they made plans for a plane that could travel at 5,300 mph, which is above Mach 5. Meaning, it would be able to transport people from Beijing to New York in two hours, a far cry from the traditional flight time of 13 hours.
Furthermore, the biplane design, named as I Plane is equipped with two layers of wings that would help reduce turbulence and drag while creating more lift.
