A HYPERSONIC aeroplane that can fly from London to New York in a groundbreaking time of 90 minutes is being developed by “Russia’s Elon Musk”.
Entrepreneur Mikhail Korkorich is building a hydrogen-powered plane capable of flying at five times the speed of sound.
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The company’s revolutionary project is Destinus S – a 25-seater business jet that can fly up to 6,000 miles at the altitude of 108,000 feet.
This means the jet will soar more than 60,000 feet higher than current airliners.
The start-up is also planning to build a wide-body passenger jet known as Destinus-L.
The aircraft will have capacity to carry 300-400 people, and can travel up to 13,670 miles.
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Model S deliveries are expected to start between 2032 and 2035, with Destinus-L following five years later in 2040.
The hyperplane will use a turbojet engine combined with rocket engine.
Martina Löfqvist, Destinus representative, told Business Insider: “It’s somewhere of a mix between a rocket and an airplane.”
The aircraft comes with sharp leading edges along the front of the wings that are better for the aerodynamics.
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The planes will also have a “wave rider design” which gives the aircraft an extra lift by riding on the shock waves produced at ultra-fast speeds.
These waves, however, heat up the hypersonic vehicle and the material used for it must remain cool.
The solution comes from hydrogen which powers the jet, and also plays a great cooling agent, meaning it could neutralise 1,000 Celcius heat generated from hypersonic speeds.
Löfqvist described hydrogen power as the “core of the company,” saying it is three times more efficient than traditional jet fuel, and produces zero carbon emissions.
The jet will also generate “ten times less” sonic boom noise by flying up in the mesosphere, the middle layer of the atmosphere.
Korkorich’s startup Destinus is currently developing a series of hydroplanes suited both for cargo and passenger transportation.
Another project in development is an unmanned drone which will blast cargo from Europe to Australia in just a couple of hours using clean liquid hydrogen fuel.
An unmanned machine will take off slowly from regular airport runways before accelerating to supersonic speeds.
Korkovich said the plane will spend less energy for the same distances which will allow for cheaper transportation costs.
“We can move stuff from here to another continent cheaper than normal planes.
“It sounds strange, but it isn’t; we just spend less energy for this,” he added.
The plan is to start moving urgent, high-value cargo first- medical supplies, secure documents, critical infrastructure parts.
But eventually, the drone will be used to move commercial goods without boosting their prices.
“Amazing tuna from the Mediterranean will be in the kitchen of Japanese restaurants as fresh as if it’s just been caught, eventually at the same price,” he said.
But these plans are still years away and the hypersonic flight is an unknown territory for many countries’ regulators.
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Hypersonic trials are obstructed by the lack of long-distance test “corridors”.
Only two prototypes have been tested so far, with one having a “hard landing” during the maiden flight.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
