A2 Would Hit Mach 5 Over Ocean

The European Union’s Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies (LAPCAT) project has Mach 5 flight potential within 25 years. Part of the EU’s research programs developed in 2002, Reaction Engines Limited will be partially funded for their work involving the hypersonic engine.

Conceptual design of the sleek A2 airliner proposes long distance flights across continents and oceans -- which currently take more than 20 hours -- would be reduced to less than five.

"The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and subsonically out into the north Atlantic at Mach 0.9 before reaching Mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia," LAPCAT chief Alan Bond told The Guardian Daily.

The A2 plane is designed with the Scimitar engine in mind, estimating a passenger load of 300 and distance capabilities of 20,000 km non-stop. The vehicle proposed is configured to attain the appropriate supersonic lift/drag ratio currently set as efficient standards for commercial operation. The propulsion systems involved would protect the aircraft as it transitions from take-off and subsonic continental speeds to the upwards of hypersonic Mach 5 speeds.

According to Reaction Engines, their Scimitar powerplant is a "precooled engine concept which exploits the unique thermodynamic properties of liquid hydrogen."

Shifting away from jet fuel to use the thermodynamic properties of liquid hydrogen means less of a carbon footprint, but more research and development to make it happen.

FMI: www.reactionengines.co.uk/lapcat.html