Ever since the Concorde was grounded civilians like you and me haven’t been able to break the sound barrier, since then no passenger plane has been brought into service that could proudly boast about being supersonic. Who knows how long it will be until civilians are once again able to fly at supersonic speeds, perhaps the Skreemr jet will make that dream a reality, it’s a new concept jet which aims to ferry passengers from New York to London in just 30 minutes.
Concept rendering creator Ray Mattison and designer Charles Bombardier have collaborated on this concept which will theoretically be able to fly at Mach 10. It will be launched from a magnetic railgun at close to Mach 4 and would then fire up kerosene rockets or liquid oxygen until it’s fast enough to start a scramjet engine.
The scramjet engine would then use the very high speed of the jet to compress air for internal combustion, burning a mix of compressed oxygen and hydrogen to achieve speeds of up to Mach 10, that’s 7,673 miles per hour, ergo a 30 minute trip from New York to London.
It goes without saying that this is easier said than done. Traditional fuselage material will not be able to cope with the extreme rise in temperature during acceleration, and engineers will have to figure out a way to safely launch the aircraft from a railgun while making sure that the passengers inside don’t pass out by pulling g-forces they can’t handle.
Even the Scramjet engine hasn’t been declared fit for public use just yet, both the U.S. and Chinese military organizations are currently testing this technology, and it will be quite a while before it’s believed to be safe enough for up to 75 passengers to travel in the Skreemr supersonic jet.
Filed in .. Source: popularmechanics