Concept Plane Would Launch Across the Ocean at Mach 10
Jeff Edwards November 02, 2015
Rocket engines, scramjets and a magnetic launching railgun could allow an innovative new-concept passenger plane to travel at speeds five times faster than the Concorde.
Since the retirement of the last Concorde plane, flying across oceans at supersonic speed has been out of reach for most passengers. If the designer of the Skreemr concept plane has his way, the next generation of SST passenger planes will more closely resemble a rocket ship than a jet plane.
The Skreemr concept calls for the supersonic aircraft to be launched from magnetic rails. The electromagnetic railgun launching system would allow the futuristic passenger plane to reach speeds fast enough for liquid fuel rockets to take over, increasing the acceleration of the craft to speeds which would in turn ignite scramjets. Designers hope that the unique three-stage sequence will allow the Skreemr to reach speeds in excess of Mach 10 without subjecting passengers and the aircraft to dangerous g-force levels.
The Skreemr concept is the brainchild of Canadian industrialist and inventor Charles Bombardier, who first introduced his ideas for a futuristic plane to the world in a Globe and Mail column. Bombardier admitted that his design for an SST of tomorrow faces some tough hurdles before it becomes anything close to a reality.
He notes that materials strong enough and light enough to survive at speeds in the lower atmosphere that are more than five times faster than the Concorde ever flew, are either cost-prohibitive or non-existent. Bombardier also voiced concerns that the railgun launching system would need a substantial amount of landscape in order to achieve the speeds needed without producing g-forces too strong for the human body to endure. Still, if the Skreemr ever becomes a reality, a trip from New York to London might one day be possible in a half hour.
“The Skreemr would be used as a commercial aircraft to fly from one continent to the next,” Bombardier wrote. “It would fly five times faster than the Concorde and it could carry around 75 passengers.”
[Image: Charles Bombardier]
New-York to London in 30 minutes ? What's the point when you have to leave home 3 hours before your flight and spend 1 hour on the road or in public transports to reach the aiport, when you have to be at the airport 2 hours prior to your flight because check-in close 1 hour prior to the flight and gate close 20 minutes before departure and then the plane has to spend 20 minutes to reach the runway, no to mention the long time lost queuing before deicing in winter... It would be more easy to make travel faster by improving efficiency of ground transports and airport organisation rather than by developping new technologies to fly at mach 10.
That's funny!!
There's just this slight "landing" problem to sort out, at the other end...
I don't see this happening in my lifetime which is fine...nothing like a nice, relaxing 15-hours in first class to Asia to unwind.