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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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 Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:54 am Post subject: EU: ground-breaking aircraft |
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* five times the speed of sound
* London to Sydney in under five hours (via the North Pole)
* "Son of Concorde", designed to carry 300 passengers
* hi-tech liquid hydrogen-powered engines, few carbon emissions
* partly funded by the European Space Agency and the European Union
* known as the A2, the work of British engineers
* it has no windows
* The current flight time for airliners flying between England and Australia is 22 hours 50 minutes - four times longer than the target set
* altitude of 100,000ft (30,480m)
* tickets expected to be $4,000
* the plane could be flying commercially within 15 years.
from the Daily Mail |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| No windows? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:22 am Post subject: |
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| f!@#$%^ cool. |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:08 am Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
| No windows? |
Right. The Guardian has more: "The heat generated by travelling so quickly makes it difficult to install windows that are secure and not too heavy. One solution Reaction Engines has proposed is to install flat screen panels where the window would be, showing images of the scene outside."
Check out the size of the thing too!  http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/02/05/Graphic_Lapcat2_0502.pdf (twice the size of a jumbo)
Really though, I see it as being a bit limited like the Concorde. These supersonic aircraft can't go their nutty speeds over populated areas because of sonic boom. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| Justin Hale wrote: |
| caniff wrote: |
| No windows? |
Right. The Guardian has more: "The heat generated by travelling so quickly makes it difficult to install windows that are secure and not too heavy. One solution Reaction Engines has proposed is to install flat screen panels where the window would be, showing images of the scene outside."
Check out the size of the thing too! http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/02/05/Graphic_Lapcat2_0502.pdf (twice the size of a jumbo)
Really though, I see it as being a bit limited like the Concorde. These supersonic aircraft can't go their nutty speeds over populated areas because of sonic boom. |
What about people with claustrophobia? Will flat screens take care of that?
I don't know. Cool-looking craft, though. $4,000 is a bit pricey to go from London to Sydney, but since they say it won't be flying for at least 15 years then that amount will probably eventually work out to be the same as the price of a can of Pepsi.
Nice.
edit: The Guardian pic doesn't download for me. But the other article said the proposed craft will carry 300 passengers, yet it is twice the size of a jumbo jet.
Will the passengers be ballroom dancing during the flight? |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:09 am Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
What about people with claustrophobia? Will flat screens take care of that? |
Seems a good solution to me, since I see no appreciable difference between a window and a screen showing what's outside.....but screw claustrophics, frankly. Anyone prepared to travel at Mach 5 yet scared of being trapped inside is a douchebag. 
| Caniff wrote: |
| I don't know. Cool-looking craft, though. $4,000 is a bit pricey to go from London to Sydney, but since they say it won't be flying for at least 15 years then that amount will probably eventually work out to be the same as the price of a can of Pepsi. |
Hopefully it won't be that expensive, since the lesson of the Concorde is that people aren't prepared to pay over double the price to get there in half the time and - wonderful though it was - it was a largely useless and stupidly expensive airplane.
| Caniff wrote: |
Nice.
edit: The Guardian pic doesn't download for me. |
| Caniff wrote: |
But the other article said the proposed craft will carry 300 passengers, yet it is twice the size of a jumbo jet.
Will the passengers be ballroom dancing during the flight? |
HAHA! Good question! I assume it's gonna be a luxury, spacious plane, but in my lay opinion they should have a re-think, because the 747 has twice as many passangers with half the size and I fear it's just Concorde all over again - amazing plane but pretty much useless. A major difference is the kind of fuel, so it can go far without re-fueling, but what's the point in these hypersonic aircraft if they can't fly over populated areas? Cracking a whip makes a noise because it breaks the sound barrier, so what's a giant freaking plane going at Mach 5 gonna do? |
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OneWayTraffic
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 6:31 am Post subject: |
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| Justin Hale wrote: |
HAHA! Good question! I assume it's gonna be a luxury, spacious plane, but in my lay opinion they should have a re-think, because the 747 has twice as many passangers with half the size and I fear it's just Concorde all over again - amazing plane but pretty much useless. A major difference is the kind of fuel, so it can go far without re-fueling, but what's the point in these hypersonic aircraft if they can't fly over populated areas? Cracking a whip makes a noise because it breaks the sound barrier, so what's a giant freaking plane going at Mach 5 gonna do? |
Well there's no telling if the sonic boom will be as bad as in older designs. The understanding of such things has really advanced. And if it's ten kilometers high, we may not care.
I like the bit about the fuel. Hydrogen isn't a green fuel. It's generally made by reforming natural gas and that's a lossy process. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:17 am Post subject: |
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Did somebody say "ground-breaking"? |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 10:05 am Post subject: |
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The E.U. should use it to quickly shuttle back all the human detritus that they have been importing as of late.
Send them business class. That way it'll cut down on the 'blow-back'. |
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Justin Hale
Joined: 24 Nov 2007
Location: the Straight Talk Express
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| Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:45 am Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
The E.U. should use it to quickly shuttle back all the human detritus that they have been importing as of late.
Send them business class. That way it'll cut down on the 'blow-back'. |
Excellent notion.
| Onewaytraffic wrote: |
Well there's no telling if the sonic boom will be as bad as in older designs. The understanding of such things has really advanced. And if it's ten kilometers high, we may not care.
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30km high (not 10; 10km is the altitude of a normal plane, not hypersonic aircraft) and in any case, objects moving through air faster than sound make a noise. here's the Concorde making such a noise breaking the sound barrier. Any physical object - be it a whip or a plane - traveling through air faster than the speed of sound makes a noise and it's unpleasant if not downright dangerous to windows and eardrums. |
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