‘Antipode’ plane could blast from London to New York in 20 minutes

‘Antipode’ plane could blast from London to New York in 20 minutes, creator claims *** A new concept jet could streak from London to New York in 20 minutes – faster than travelling from central London to the suburbs. It’ll be quite a ride, though – using rocket boosters to hit Mach 5, before a ‘ramjet’ boosts the aircraft to 24 times the speed of sound. The Antipode jet is the brainchild of Canadian designer Charles Bombardier, who says it takes advantage of an aerodynamic phenomenon called ‘Long penetration mode’ (LPM). Speaking to the BBC, Bombardier said, ‘The idea of going from New York to London in, say 20 minutes – that’s what I think really grabbed people. The aircraft would seat 10 people and fly at Mach 24 – 10 times faster than Concorde, and 24 times the speed of sound. It’s roughly 18264mph. Bombardier says that the aircraft would take off from a normal runway – but would use rocket boosters on its wings to fly up to 40,000 feet, where the real fun begins. Bombardie came up with the design after an expert engineer, ‘proposed using a novel aerodynamic phenomenon called ‘long penetration mode (LPM)’ Bombardier says the aircraft would channel air at supersonic speed through a nozzle on its nose – inducing ‘LPM’ and preventing it from overheating. He tells the BBC that at present, it’s a concept, but he hopes that the idea will drive people to share ideas. | Metro News
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