U.S. Patent And Trademark Office Approved The Design July 14

Airbus has received a U.S. Patent on what it calls an "Ultra-Rapid Air Vehicle" which would be "propelled by a system of motors formed by turbojets, ramjets and a rocket motor."

The patent was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 14, according to a report appearing on Wired.co.uk. In its filing, says that the aircraft i proposes represents a significant improvement in performance over both the retired Concorde and Tupolev TU-144 SSTs. It also says that the sonic boom would be substantially reduced by the design.

The patent explains that the aircraft would reach  near-vertical flight during its initial descent using turbojets and the rocket motor. The airplane would reach a cruising speed of between Mach 4 and Mach 4.5 ... or nearly 3,500 miles per hour. It would also fly about 12 miles higher than conventional airliners.

Both civilian and military variants are proposed in the patent. The civilian aircraft would carry about 20 passengers and complete an 9,000 mile flight in just under 3 hours. The military aircraft could be deployed for precision strikes and "take out preferred high added-value targets."

According to Airbus, the plane could use existing airports, as long as hydrogen and liquid oxygen were available for refueling.

There are currently no firm plans to ever produce the aircraft.

(Images from Airbus patent application)

FMI: www.airbus.com