Some of us thought our dream of superfast jaunts from New York to London retired along with the Concorde in 2003. We assumed those quick trips would come with the jetpacks handed out to our great-grandchildren at a date far, far into the future. Now comes news that maybe as soon as, er, well, our old age, we might be able to jet off to the U.K. in just an hour.
According to this video from the very amusing PatentYogi and patents filed in the U.S., Airbus is planning to build a Concorde 2.0. The original Concordes allowed passengers to get from JFK to Heathrow in three and a half hours, half the time it takes other planes. They flew that route and others for British Airways and Air France from 1976 to 2003, when economic woes in the airline industry made the supersonic trips seem too extravagant.
This new "ultra-rapid air vehicle" promises a vast improvement over its sleek ancestor, the BBC reports. It would reach up to Mach 4.5 (versus the Concorde's Mach 2.5), with the help of a rocket engine and tail fins that tilt. It also would solve the problem of the excessively loud sonic boom the previous plane made (just ask anyone who lived on the south shore of Long Island before 2003), because when it speeds up, the plane is pointed vertically while the sound is sent out horizontally, never reaching the ground. Passengers would sit in hammock-like chairs to accommodate the changing orientation. Also, only about 20 people would be onboard. PatentYogi describes the ride as a really long, supersonic roller-coaster.
Airbus first published its design in 2011, but the U.S. Patent office just approved it, according to the BBC. When the aeronautics manufacturer first came out with the idea, it said these planes wouldn't actually go into service for 30-40 years. This gives us just enough time to save up for a ticket.