Twice
as fast as Concorde: The supersonic jet will be twice as fast as Concorde,
and will SonicStar plane will have a top speed of Mach 3.6.
Plans
for 20-seat craft were unveiled at Paris Air Show.
HyperMach
claims its SonicStar aircraft will be so quick that travelling from London to
New York will take just TWO HOURS.
A
trip from New York to Sydney, meanwhile, will be cut by a staggering 75 per
cent - from 20 hours on a commercial airliner to just five hours.
A
jet that can fly from London to Sydney in three and a half hours could rob
Concorde of its title as the
fastest-ever
passenger plane.
Plans
have been unveiled for the HyperMach SonicStar, a business jet which will be
capable of a top speed
of
2,664 mph twice as fast as Concorde.
It
will fly at 62,000 ft, allowing passengers to see the curvature of the earth.
HypeMach
chief executive Richard Lugg wants the plane in the skies within ten years
(!) and has already
secured
funding from the Department of Trade and Industry, which has agreed to
support the company in Britain.
Long-range
cruise speed - Mach 3.1
High-speed
cruise speed - Mach 3.4
Engines
- Two SonicBlue S-MAGJET Hybrid Supersonic 4000-X Series
Thrust
- Flat-rated to 54,700 lb
Wing
area - 1,800 square feet
Landing
distance - 4,800 ft
Range
- 6,000 nautical miles
Highest
Altitude - 62,000 ft
Height
at maximum - 2.6 metres
Width
at maximum - 2.7 metres
Visiting
the Paris Air Show, Mr Lugg said: "We have access to revolutionary
engine technology and a unique very high speed
aircraft
design to make this kind of earth-shatteringly fast air travel possible, and
we have a date. Our plan is to build and fly the
world's
first very high speed supersonic hybrid aircraft by June 2021."
Propulsion
for the 20-seat aircraft will come from two hybrid engines which will be 30
per cent more fuel efficient than the
Rolls-Royce
engines used in Concorde.
It
has been eight years since Concorde was retired from service and with it the
supersonic dreams of millions around the world.
It
will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1, a speed made possible by S-MAGJET hybrid
gas turbine engine technology; nobody has
ever
travelled that fast before.
Its
top speed, however, will be Mach 3.6.
With
relatively low fuel consumption, the Sonic Star 'overcomes the economic and
environmental challenges of supersonic flight
to
revolutionise the way we travel and drive air transportation forward into the
future,' claims HyperMach.
By
using electromagnetic currents across the fuselage to suppress the sonic
boom, the plane is able to overcome the noise
regulations
that constrict supersonic travel.
It
has a range of 6,000 nautical miles and its 54,700 thrust class S-MAGJET
engine - actually two engines - is optimised to fly the aircraft at 62,000
ft.
But
it is the reduction in jet engine emissions that HyperMach believes will
prove the secret of SonicStar's success.
Tomorrow's
world: HyperMach plans to build its SonicStar engine by the end of the decade
and to have the plane itself constructed by 2025.
SonicStar
will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1, a speed made possible by S-MAGJET
hybridgas turbine engine technology.
A
spokesman said: 'The engine is a true hybrid. It generates massive electrical
power on board using proprietary integrated
turbine
electromagnetic generation technology to segment each engine rotating
component stage electrically.
'Every
stage from bypass fans to compressor to turbine rotates independently of the
other.'
This
segmentation will enable the engine to change the operating speeds of its
rotating components continually throughout
the
flight to respond to the changing conditions of the atmosphere and the flight
and performance demands of the aircraft.
The
HyperMach claims that this, along with the S-MAGJET plasma fuel combustion
technology, will result in a 40 to 50
per
cent increase in the ability of engine to convert fuel to thrust.
The
company said such fuel efficiency would ultimately lead to a 30 to 35 per
cent reduction in fuel used as supersonic speeds.
