Concorde - the first supersonic civil aircraft - though met an early end, however, the quest to develop supersonic civil aircrafts to cut the traveling time has once again gained fresh breath with a commitment to develop improved models.
Reaction Engines is all set to design and develop advanced space transport and propulsion systems, under LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project which according to developers intended to:
...reduce long-distance flights, e.g. From Brussels to Sydney, to less than 2 to 4 hours. Achieving this goal intrinsically requires a new flight regime for commercial transport with Mach numbers ranging from 4 to 8.
A successful end of this project means delivery of a hypersonic aircraft with near antipodal range (20,000 km). Alan Bond along with John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill, Rolls Royce engineers behind the HOTOL, are just contemplating on improved designs of Scimitar engine to exploit thermodynamic properties of liquid hydrogen and develop a hydrogen-fuelled turbine-based combine cycle propulsion system.
After long researches engineers have come up with A2 airframe. The multi-layered construction with an actively cooled internal screen enables A2 airframe to withstand prolonged flight at Mach 5 for several hours with a capacity of carrying 300 passengers at a moderate take-off noise.
Furthermore, reduced journey time of 4.6 hours compared to the current 22 hours and steam formed Hydrogen fuel, if possible, is expected to halve the cost of existing Business class ticket. Hydrogen fuel derived from water electrolysis has been given green signal, as it is environmentally friendly.
The project, which is funded by the EUROPA general R&D fund rather than ESA, involves a 36 month study to make such long distance hypersonic flight practical enabling it to service conventional subsonic overland routes thereby increasing its sales potential to airlines.
Image Credit: ReactionEngines
Via: Gizmag
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