New rocketplane could fly Melbourne-London in 3.5 hours

[ford man xf]

New rocketplane 'could fly Melbourne-London in 3.5 hours'

European aerospace giant EADS has unveiled its "Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation" (Zehst) rocket plane it hopes will be able to fly from Melbourne to London in under 3.5 hours by around 2050.

The trip between Paris and Tokyo could be completed in under 2.5 hours.

"I imagine the plane of the future to look like Zehst," EADS' chief technical officer Jean Botti said as the project was announced at Le Bourget airport the day before the start of the Paris International Air Show.

The low-pollution plane to carry between 50 and 100 passengers will take off using normal engines powered by biofuel made from seaweed before switching on its rocket engines at altitude.

The rocket engines, powered by hydrogen and oxygen whose only exhaust is water vapour, propel the plane to a cruising altitude of 32 kilometres (20 miles), compared to today's passenger jets which fly at around 10,000 metres.

"You don't pollute, you're in the stratosphere," Botti said.

To land, the pilot cuts the engines and glides down to Earth before reigniting the regular engines before landing.

EADS hopes to have a prototype built by 2020 and for the plane to eventually enter service around 2050.

The project is being developed in collaboration with Japan and uses technology that is already available.

A four-metre model of the plane, which looks similar to the now defunct Concorde supersonic jet, will be on show at Bourget for the biannual aerospace showcase which begins on Monday and opens to the general public on Friday.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshom...-in-2-5-hours/

[Jim Goose]

There has been how many "ramjet/ scramjet" planes of the future appearing since 1970s! Funny enough none have actually come into service...

[Apollo66]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

There has been how many "ramjet/ scramjet" planes of the future appearing since 1970s! Funny enough none have actually come into service...

Rodger owned the first one ..... sorry.

[Stealth00]

[jamesson1980]

New rocketplane 'could fly Melbourne-London in 3.5 hours'

roughly the same as my quarter mile times in the EB

[Mr Hardware]

So that's 4800kmh it'd need to travel at, more than double the speed of a Concorde

[MAGPIE]

They should probably concentrate on stopping the current airliners from falling out of the sky, when they have got that right then move on.

[Jim Goose]

Originally Posted by MAGPIE

They should probably concentrate on stopping the current airliners from falling out of the sky, when they have got that right then move on.

Er um... and how do you eliminate human error?

The majority of accidents occur due to human error, not because airframes fall apart in mid air.

[nstg8a]

bring back the blimps... why be in such a rush anyway

[TheInterceptor]

Why dont people spend the time and money in things like finding an alternative to oil instead of useless things such as this that will never happen.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

bring back the blimps... why be in such a rush anyway

Agreed, I travelled to NZ via cruise ship, 13 days, Melbourne to 6 places around NZ and back.

Nothing like travelling at a top speed of 35km/h It took 3 days on the sea to get from Melbourne to the first stop on NZ.

Except this time, don't use hydrogen:



Also, werent we all supposed to be flying around in jetpacks and flying cars by the year 2000? As if we'll have this rocket ship thing in 2050, hell Metro still probably wont be able to arrive at the station on time ;)

[BHDOGS]

Yes blimps with a man wearing a red cape and a top hat with a diabolic mustache yelling mwhahhahah soon i shall crush you with my army of evil robots

[aussie muscle]

this will probably be like the Concorde. it flew all over the world in record time and top comfort...

...except for Australia, who needs high speed the most because of the distance, decided in infinite wisdom, to ban the jets because of noise!!

[TZENU]

Give it time and Rod Hadfield will slot it in between the rails of another 56

[jcxr]

Boonie's gonna be hard pressed to drink 36 cans in 3.5 hours.........
Pffft, to fast, relax, smell the roses, everyones in a hurry these days.