Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Frankfurt to Dubai in 90 minutes? Europe enters the hypersonic plane race
Today’s commercial jets usually cruise at around 900 km/h, just about three-quarters of the speed of sound, or Mach 0.75. The only and the last commercial hypersonic plane, Concord, which had its last flight two decades ago, cruised at 2,158 km/h, roughly Mach 1.8. While there have been a number of projects that aimed to bring about the next hypersonic commercial jets, none seems to have gotten any closer to realization than this European hypersonic startup, Destinus. Headquartered in Switzerland, the aerospace, defense, and energy solutions company combines hypersonic jets with hydrogen technologies. Hydrogen is a cleaner fuel to fly aircraft faster than conventional jet fuel, a blend of kerosene and gasoline. Though the cost to produce hydrogen is still too expensive for commercial flights, the company expects it to drop significantly in the coming years. Also, the aircraft is going to be autonomously flown, meaning no pilot on board to fly five times faster than the speed of sound. If you think of today’s drones and rockets, that might not be so surprising.
Enjoy reading the article and learning about the next-generation supersonic plane.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/destinus-hypersonic-plane/index.html
Frankfurt to Dubai in 90 minutes? Europe enters the hypersonic plane race
Today’s commercial jets usually cruise at around 900 km/h, just about three-quarters of the speed of sound, or Mach 0.75. The only and the last commercial hypersonic plane, Concord, which had its last flight two decades ago, cruised at 2,158 km/h, roughly Mach 1.8. While there have been a number of projects that aimed to bring about the next hypersonic commercial jets, none seems to have gotten any closer to realization than this European hypersonic startup, Destinus. Headquartered in Switzerland, the aerospace, defense, and energy solutions company combines hypersonic jets with hydrogen technologies. Hydrogen is a cleaner fuel to fly aircraft faster than conventional jet fuel, a blend of kerosene and gasoline. Though the cost to produce hydrogen is still too expensive for commercial flights, the company expects it to drop significantly in the coming years. Also, the aircraft is going to be autonomously flown, meaning no pilot on board to fly five times faster than the speed of sound. If you think of today’s drones and rockets, that might not be so surprising.
Enjoy reading the article and learning about the next-generation supersonic plane.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/destinus-hypersonic-plane/index.html
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