SONIC BOOM
Hypersonic 4,000mph passenger jet ‘Halcyon’ to fly from London to NYC in just 90 mins & could run on 125 routes by 2029
The ambitious aircraft will feature a hybrid engine that uses two traditional aviation technologies
A FUTURISTIC jet capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds is in the making - and it could fly from London to New York City in just 90 minutes.
Test flights and operations are said to start by the end of this decade for "Halcyon" which can go five times over the speed of sound.
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Travelling at 4,000mph (Mach 5), the hypersonic jet will become the fastest commercial aircraft to fly passengers around the world.
For comparison, the top speed of Concorde - one of the only two supersonic aircraft to have flown passengers to date - was 1,350mph (Mach 2.04).
With more than 125 routes planned, the hypersonic plane will have an incredible range of 4,000 miles which is enough to complete transatlantic routes like New York to Paris in one go.
However, transpacific routes like Los Angeles to Tokyo would require a small stopover.
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Interestingly, the jet will not be able to use intercontinental and domestic routes that are over land since travelling over five times the speed of sound will create massive sonic booms.
Halcyon is being developed by Hermeus, an Atlanta-based aerospace and defence technology startup aiming to hypersonic aircraft in the sky in a bid to revolutionise travel.
The company has been heavily focused on developing a one-of-a-kind jet engine to help their ambitious plane take off.
Back in 2020, the company started testing a new engine design: a fusion of two traditional technologies used in the aviation and defence industry.
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The design was a hybrid of a turbojet which most airliners use, and a ramjet, which is a type of engine that only works at supersonic speeds and above.
For flying at speeds under 2,300mph (Mach 3), the air is compressed and mixed with fuel before being ignited inside turbojets.
The hot air is then blasted out from the back of the engines, pushing the aircraft forward.
However, to achieve speeds above Mach 5 (4,000mph) and above, ramjet - a type of engine that literally rams into the air - is used because air compression to generate such speeds is not required.
Hermeus plans to use the turbojet part of the engine when the aircraft is at subsonic speeds, especially while taking off and landing.
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The engine, according to the company's claims, will automatically go into ramjet mode when the flight hits supersonic speeds while accelerating and cruising.
AJ Piplica, CEO of Hermeus, said: "The turbojet portion and the ramjet portion by themselves are mature technologies that we’ve been using for 50 years.
"The trick is to put them together, so we designed our own architecture around an off-the-shelf turbojet engine and then built out from there."
The engine will first be put under the hood of Quarterhorse - the company's second fully integrated aircraft that is set to flight near the end of 2024.
It has been developed jointly by the company and the US Air Force through a $60million partnership.
The main objective of the prototype aircraft is to "demonstrate high-speed takeoff and landing", which will be unique for the unique to future hypersonic aircraft Halcyon.
The company will then build Darkhorse - an upgrade to Quaterhouse that will be able to carry cargo as well.
Skyler Shuford, the COO of the company : "Quarterhorse is a sprinter, effectively the smallest possible airframe to flight test our engine, across all modes of operation and Mach numbers.
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"Darkhorse will be capable of sustained hypersonic flight and be able to carry cargo or payloads."
The prototypes will then make way for the company's 20-seater hypersonic plane Halcyon.
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