TORONTO – Remember the days of the Concorde jet that could get you from Toronto to Paris in about three hours? Well, Airbus was granted a patent for a new engine that could cut even that amazing time in half.
If this engine is approved, the days of 8-hour-long travels from Toronto or New York to London or Paris could take a measly hour.
WATCH: Supersonic Roller Coaster-cum-Aircraft patented by an Airbus Group Company
Airbus was granted the patent in the United States to an “ultra-rapid air vehicle” that would travel at supersonic speeds at Mach 4 or faster and 20 kilometres higher that commercial passenger aircraft.
And this isn’t just a fast jet. This is some fancy engineering.
According to the patent, the fuselage would contain a “gothic delta wing” with a tank of liquid or slushy hydrogen and one or more liquid oxygen tanks.
And once in the air, the jet will reach a height of 100,000 feet (today’s jets reach between 30,000 to 40,000 feet). The rocket engines then retract and the jets propel the plane to its cruising speed of 5,000 km/h (Mach 4).
Trips from Paris to San Francisco would take a mere three hours.
If approved, taking off down a long runway will also be a thing of the past. While the plane will use its turbojets to travel down the runway, eventually “the air vehicle’s ascension becomes near vertical.”
Now, this isn’t to say that Airbus will build the engine: There have been millions of patents issued for various devices over the years with a vast majority of them never seeing the light of day.
Still, imagine a day when travelling halfway around the world is shorter than your morning commute.
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