Airbus patents jet that could fly from NYC to London in an Hour

Years ago if you wanted to get from the US to the UK as fast as possible you climbed on the Concorde supersonic passenger jet and got underway. That aircraft has been retired now leaving standard aircraft to handle taking people quickly across the pond. Airbus has filed for a patent that talks a bit about a new jet that claims to be able to travel from NYC to London in only an hour.

The patent is for an "ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method of aerial locomotion." Airbus predicts that the aircraft could reach Mach 4.5. The retired Concorde I talked about before needed 3.5 hours to go from NYC to London. By comparison a normal passenger jet needs as long as eight hours to make the same trip.

The patent describes an aircraft with a fuselage, gothic delta wing on each side of the fuselage, and a motor system to push the aircraft through the air. There are three different engine types used in sequential order to push the aircraft to high speed.

For takeoff, a pair of turbojets takes control along with a rocket motor in the rear of the aircraft. Before the aircraft breaks the speed of sound, those turbo jets turn off and retract into the fuselage where the rocket motor pushes the aircraft to 100,000 feet. The rocket then shuts down and retracts with wing-mounted ramjets taking over.

SOURCE: Business Insider