ImaginactiveRemember Concord(e) and its New York to London flight that took just 2 hours and 52 minutes back in 1996?
Well you won’t after you feast your eyes on the ‘Antipod’!
The Antipod is a new design for a plane that will fly you from the UK to the Big Apple in a staggering 11 minutes!
Warner Bros.In fact the plane, that would be nearly 12 times faster than Concorde, could reach a top speed of Mach 24.
To put things into perspective for you, Mach 1 is equal to the speed of sound, so Mach 24 would be,… well flippin’ fast!
The people behind the project are Charles Bombardier – an industrial designer, and Abhishek Roy – the founder of Lunatic Koncepts.
ImaginactiveSpeaking to Forbes, Bombardier explained:
I wanted to create an aircraft concept capable of reaching its antipode – or diametrical opposite – as fast as possible.
I am not sure the materials able to withstand the heat, pressure, and structural stress for this application have been invented yet, however, I was then contacted by Joseph Hazeltine.
He proposed using a novel aerodynamic phenomenon called ‘long penetration mode’ – LPM could help reduce heat.
ImaginactiveIn theory, the plane would carry up to ten passengers and would be able to cover almost 12,430 miles in less than an hour.
Its wings would be equipped with rocket boosters and the aircraft itself would be powered by a scramjet engine – an engine that doesn’t have any moving parts, but uses oxygen from the environment, instead of carrying heavy tanks on-board.
Imaginactive, the company behind the ‘Antipod’, are a non profit organisation which was founded by Mr Bombardier and they specialise in building the ‘vehicles of tomorrow’.
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While the idea seems pretty fucking awesome, I dread to think how much a return ticket would cost!
