Bits Bucket for June 27, 2011

Twice as fast as Concorde: The supersonic jet that will fly from London to New York in TWO HOURS By Daily Mail Reporter

It has been eight years since Concorde was retired from service, and with it the supersonic dreams of millions around the world.

Now supersonic travel is on the cards again after a manufacturer unveiled plans for a plane that will travel twice the speed of Concorde.

HyperMach claims its SonicStar aircraft will be so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours.
Return of supersonic travel: The SonicStar aircraft will be twice as fast as Concorde - so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. It was unveiled at the Paris Air Show

Return of supersonic travel: The SonicStar aircraft will be twice as fast as Concorde - so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. It was unveiled at the Paris Air Show
SONICSTAR’S SPECS

Maximum cruise speed - Mach 3.6
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 54,700lb
Wing area - 1,800 square feet
Landing distance - 4,800ft
Range - 6,000 nautical miles
Highest Altitude - 62,000ft

CABIN

Length - 64metres
Height at maximum - 2.6metres
Width at maximum - 2.7metres

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.

British firm HyperMach revealed its plans for the 20-seat plane at the Paris Air Show last week.

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.

Richard Lugg, the chief executive of HyperMach, said: ‘Mankind has always been inspired to do things better, quicker and faster and that is our ambition.’

HyperMach plans to build its engine by the end of the decade and to have the plane itself constructed by 2025.

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 62,000ft.

But it is the reduction in jet engine emissions that HyperMach believes will prove the secret of SonicStar’s success.

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