Charles Bombardier, the engineer behind the high-speed Skreemr jet, has unveiled his latest design that will reduce London to New York flight time to just 11 minutes.
“I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode, or diametrical opposite, as fast as possible”, Bombardier told Forbes.
The industrial designer’s newest invention, the Antipode, which was conceived in collaboration with Lunatic Koncepts founder Abhishek Roy, is capable of reaching Mach 24, making it twice the speed of the Skreemr and 12 times faster than Concorde.
Unlike the Skreemr, the Antipode will be able to take off directly from any airfield by using reusable rocket boosters. These rockets would attach to the wings of the Antipode and provide enough thrust to lift off, climb to 40,000 feet, and reach Mach 5. The acceleration boosters would then separate from the Antipod and fly back to the airbase like Blue Origin’s boosters.
At Mach 5, the aircraft’s onboard computer would start the jet’s supersonic combustion ramjet engine, and a nozzle located on the nose of the aircraft will allow it to channel some of the air, accelerating speed up to Mach 24 at 40,000 feet.
The Antipode has been able to reach a much higher speed by controlling rising temperatures that did not allow Skreemr to go beyond Mach 5.
Objects traveling past Mach 5 can reach upwards of 980 C, and there is a limit to the type of materials that can withstand those kinds of temperatures. This heat is the reason why Skreemr was unable to reach a speed higher than Mach 5. However, the Antipode induces a phenomenon called ‘LPM’ or long penetration mode that has resolved the issue of rising temperatures.
The LPM does this with aeroheating and a reducing the shockwave and noise related to breaking the sound barrier.
In addition to that, the leading edge of the wings of the aircraft could also be fitted with linear nozzles so that air could flow out of them too. In this way, all leading edge surfaces could also be cooled by LPM.
Apart from its high-speed, the Antipode also has emergency compact rocket boosters similar to the EZ-Rocket from X-COR aerospace that could be ignited in case the aircraft needed to make a second landing attempt and could also be used to slow down the aircraft.
“The Antipod could be used as business or military aircraft to transport two highly ranked officials across the globe (up to 20,000 km) in less than an hour”, Bombardier told DailyMail.
“I think the cost will be at least over $150 million per plane and it could become a reality if there is a demand. But first, further research needs to be conducted”, he added.
This article originally appeared on CNN.
