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Special Interest Forums => Science, Space & Technology => Topic started by: Kiwithrottlejockey on August 21, 2010, 12:38:11 pm



Title: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on August 21, 2010, 12:38:11 pm

Five-hour Europe flight step closer

By JOSH SIMS - The Independent | 5:30AM - Tuesday, August 10, 2010

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TOP: The A2 is now entering the second phase of tests
backed by the European Union. | BELOW: The A2 shown
with an Airbus A380 for comparison.


A HYPERSONIC PASSENGER JET has entered its second phase of tests, bringing the dream of trips of less than five hours between Australasia and Europe closer to reality.

The A2 is a 300-seat aircraft capable of non-stop flight to the other side of the planet at a cruising speed of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, about 5600km/h.

A Boeing 747-400 takes the better part of 24 hours to fly from Auckland to London, at a top speed of 1000km/h.

The A2 is entering the second phase of a European Union-backed study, due to end in two years.

The British company Reaction Engines began the project before the the supersonic Concorde was grounded seven years ago.

"The objective was to design an aircraft that could travel from Brussels to Sydney in just a few hours," says Reaction technical director Richard Varvill. "Our studies showed the A2 would do it in 4.7 hours.

"We calculated that the ticket price would be about the same as today's typical business-class flight, which is not too bad," says Mr Varvill.

"But the question is how to make it commercially viable and to also make it environmentally acceptable.

There are still doubts about whether an aircraft flying at such an altitude would damage the ozone layer."

To provide the range that would allow it to travel non-stop, such an aircraft would, he says, need to be fuelled by liquid hydrogen.

On the downside, this is expensive and would require a global supply structure. But it is carbon dioxide emissions-free and that structure might prove the launch pad for all aircraft to switch to liquid hydrogen.

"The bottom line is that a large, long-distance supersonic passenger jet is looking very promising in terms of technical feasibility," says Mr Varvill.

The A2 will probably not take to the skies before 2030, but supersonic flight may be back on the agenda for a select few within five years.

At US$80 million ($109 million) a pop, Nevada-based research company Aerion Aviation's Supersonic Business Jet is not cheap but it still has US$4 billion in advance orders.

While much of the design is conventional, its proprietary "laminar-flow" technology means it could cross the Atlantic in just two hours.

The company is in talks with manufacturers and hopes to have a deal signed by the end of next year.

"The changes in technology since Concorde are such that the economics of building and getting a meaningful return on supersonic aircraft is that much more feasible," says Aerion vice-chairman Brian Barents.

"As an industry, we already have larger and more comfortable jets, but we're still providing aircraft that fly at the speed they did in the 1950s," says Mr Barents. "Speed is the next frontier. And business jets are a stepping stone to ... commercial jets."

The biggest obstacle to supersonic passenger flight is the sonic boom, the bang created by pressure waves around a plane as it passes through the sound barrier.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10664897 (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10664897)


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: Magoo on September 07, 2010, 08:30:39 am

I just had a mental image of myself hurtling through the sound barrier  with my cheeks slapping me on the back of my head.

Pass.   :o



Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: guest49 on September 23, 2010, 11:30:16 am
I guess pilot input would be minimal, but I'd want to see his qualifications/log-book all the same! (http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/XtraNewsCommunity2/MSN%20emoticons/09emcrook.gif)


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: Magoo on September 24, 2010, 08:35:24 am
I still think that taking a journey includes enjoying the process of arriving at a destination.   The excitement begins for me dragging the bag out of the storeroom.


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: guest49 on October 04, 2010, 09:42:16 am
I still think that taking a journey includes enjoying the process of arriving at a destination.   The excitement begins for me dragging the bag out of the storeroom.

The bit I really enjoy, is getting home again.

I have been dragged all over the world. 
Theres nothing inspiring about being forced through the cattle-chutes at Beijing airport, staring down a militiaman fondling his automatic carbine in the grey concrete bunker that passes as an international terminal at St Petersburg, watching a bored official at Seattle poking through your underwear while he looks for a nuclear device........  Hell, I dont even like going down to the closest town an hour and a half away, come to think of it.......


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: Magoo on October 04, 2010, 11:33:06 am
Quote
The bit I really enjoy, is getting home again.
But it would seem you allow yourself to be dragged along. Very sensible too. ;D 


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: guest49 on October 04, 2010, 12:31:44 pm
I guess its a way of spending money on kerosine, money that I would rather be spending on the property.


Title: Re: Auckland to Europe in 5-hours?
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on October 31, 2010, 03:42:28 pm
I guess its a way of spending money on kerosine, money that I would rather be spending on the property.


You don't have to spend money on kerosine when you fly.

You can (if you wish) still spend it on good-old 100-octane avgas.

Next year, a classic Douglas DC-6B is undertaking a tour of Australia, offering joyride flights from major cities, as well as the opportunity to fly long-haul sectors between the State Capital Cities. The aeroplane being used for this tour is the last DC-6 in the world still licensed to carry passengers in an airline operation. It was actually the very last piston-engined airliner built by Douglas and was delivered in 1958 to Yugoslavia where it entered service as a VIP transport for President Tito. The aeroplane eventually found its way to Namibia where it was completely overhauled and restored with a luxury all-first-class airline interior. Since then it has been used to fly air safaris around the southern half of the African continent. When you fly in this aeroplane, you are treated to the quadrophonic sound of four big 2,500hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double-Wasp 18-cylinder radial engines burning through that 100-octane avgas at a frightening rate while they spew out large quantities of greenhouse gases. Flying the way god intended it to be back during the 1950s before jet airliners spoilt it all!

The DC-6B Tour of Australia — Celebrating Australia's Centenary of Powered Flight (http://www.yesteryearaviation.com.au)

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