A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
Airbus has won a patent for a hypersonic passenger plane which could potentially fly from London to New York in an hour.Dubbed Concord 2.0, the jet would be capable of flying more than four times the speed of sound. Documents lodged with the US Patent Office refer to an "ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method for aerial locomotion".According to the documents, the jet would reach speeds as high as Mach 4.5, or four-and-a-half times the speed of sound. That compares to Mach 2 for Concorde. The patent application says that the aeroplane would use a variety of engines that would serve different purposes and power would come from hydrogen stored on board.
Two turbojets under the fuselage and a rocket motor in the rear would be used during take-off. It would lift off vertically like a Space Shuttle. Once launched, the turbojets would be shut down and retracted and the rocket motor would then kick in to climb to an altitude of more than 100,000 feet. Then ramjets, more usually used on missiles, would be ignited and the flight would reach a top speed of Mach 4.5. Patent Yogi, a website dedicated to explaining patent ideas, said the flight path of the jet would make it the "highest roller-coaster ride in the world".
The jet would come with hammock-like seats for passengers to sit in - necessary if they wanted to travel in comfort. Travelers wouldn't have to share the cabin with hundreds of others - the patent application describes it as more of a private jet carrying just 20 passengers at a time. The idea would also not be limited to commercial flights. In the patent, Airbus also lists military applications for the jet. Airbus took the iconic Concorde out of service in 2003 because of high operating costs.
In the 1970s, the supersonic jet faced complaints about the sonic booms and noise pollution created by its four turbojet engines.
As a result it was banned from operating over land and was never able to become financially viable, operating instead as a high-altitude transatlantic taxi service for the super-rich.
The patent application for the new jet does address the issue of sonic booms. By climbing almost vertically the new design's sonic boom would be dissipated in all directions and not reach the ground.
And the design has echoes of the curves of Concorde, with what is described as a "gothic delta wing".
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