In July 2015, Airbus patented the design of the CONCORDE-2 aircraft, which, according to the project, should fly at a speed of 3.435 miles per hour (about 5500 km / h). "Extract" from patent information:
It seems to be nothing unusual: well, a hypersonic passenger plane, well, a patent (as is customary), again from Tokyo to Los Angeles in three hours of flight, from London to New York in one hour, cruising - 4.5M. Ordinary …
Some oddities, of course, are present (answer to PAK YES? New strategist from EU?)
1. The owners of the patent are: EADS Astrium - a subsidiary of EADS (100% of shares), the largest manufacturer of spacecraft and EADS-EUROPEAN AERONAUTIC DEFENCE AND SPACE COMPANY - the largest European aerospace corporation and the defense industry.
Now it's all called EA Airbus Group (Airbus Airbus Defense & Space Airbus Helicopters)
EADS is the sole shareholder (100%) of Airbus S. A. S., which manufactures passenger, cargo and military transport aircraft. In total, EA Airbus Group owns:
100% Eurocopter (helicopters).
100% EADS Astrium (satellites).
50% ATR (turboprop aircraft).
47% Dassault Aviation (fighters).
46% Eurofighter GmbH (fighters).
40% MBDA (rockets).
EADS is the second largest manufacturer of aerospace equipment in the world after Boeing, and again the second largest manufacturer of weapons and military equipment in Europe (after BAE Systems.)
2. For some reason, the patent states that the airliner from Airbus intended PREVENTLY for military purposes.
"Airbus intends to use Concorde-2 primarily for military purposes.."
3. The patented "Concorde-2" can accommodate only 19 passengers.
"… And would have a seating limitation of up 19 passengers."
Will it be too little? Or am I behind the times?
Throughout history, there have been two cases of commercial use of supersonic passenger aircraft:
Tu-144 (First flight December 31, 1968), 16 units produced, speed up to 2500 km / h, cruising ceiling 20,000 m, range up to 5330 km, number of passengers: up to 80 (standard).
Touched the cost of a ticket on the route Moscow-Alma-Ata - ONLY 68 rubles from the nose (on a subsonic plane 48 rubles). Nostalgia just the same.
Tu-144LL "Moscow" (entry 1999.)
Concorde (First flight March 2, 1969), 20 units produced, speed up to 2,300 km / h, cruise ceiling 18,300 m, range up to 6,470 km, the cost of a 3.5-hour flight from London to New York did not drop below $ 1500 per one end - "ONLY" is four times more expensive than a ticket for a Boeing 747, which overcomes the Atlantic in seven to eight hours.
In the early 1980s, the operation of the Concorde became profitable. In 1983, Air France had $ 3, 1 million, in the next - already 6, 3 million. Profit growth was observed in subsequent years. Thus, the British airline British Airways, starting in 1983, began to receive an average of 12-15 million dollars annually.
Tragic but very interesting video -Air France Concorde flight 4590 takes off with fire: Concorde crash that killed 113
For reference (all of a sudden, who does not know): December 6, 2010 The American airline Continental Airlines was found by a French court guilty of the manslaughter of 113 people who died in the crash of the Concorde supersonic passenger plane 10 years ago near Paris. The court ordered the American company to pay in damages and fines 1.2 million euros ($ 1.6 million).
P. S. The volunteer organization Club Concorde wants to spend $ 250 million ($ 47 million already seemingly raised) to get the original Concorde back into production by 2019.
What is interesting in this patent?
In principle, everything is literally "chewed" in this video:
For those who do not understand or who are too lazy to watch to the end, I will try to explain.
CONCORDE-2 is equipped with three types of propulsion systems:
-turbojet;
-reactive;
- direct flow hypersonic.
Hypersonic takes off from a conventional runway to a turbojet engine, then using a liquid-propellant engine (H2 + O2), almost vertically rises to an altitude of 35,000 m, while it overcomes the supersonic barrier and, having accelerated to 4.5M, turns on the hypersonic direct-flow engines. Cruising flight, at a cruising range on the same hypersonic direct-flow engines. Landing again on the old, proven turbofan engines. Fuel-hydrogen, oxidizer: oxygen and outboard air (for turbojet engine).
A specially calculated shape of the wing and keels, as well as overcoming the supersonic barrier in vertical acceleration (propagation of a sound wave parallel to the Earth's surface) solve the main problem of the ATP (or rather, GPS) - noise.
A specially designated air corridor at an altitude of about 30.5 kilometers, in fact, will help reduce noise phobia and will not disturb the peace of a resting Western worker in any way.
SPS (Concorde-1) on takeoff made more than twice as much noise as Boeing-707 or DC-8. True, no one took measurements, but this is the main formal argument against the Concorde in the American sky on behalf of the American air transport services.
They also talked (the OBS agency) about the increased smoke of the Olympus, which supposedly inevitably should lead to an increase in oncological diseases of the American electorate - but this argument does not stand up to criticism even from the US State Department and its employees.
For reference: TRDF "Olimp" 593-1 had a higher noise level than double-circuit NK-144, installed on the Tu-144.
PS. Details can be found in US09079661:
There is no effort to translate all the forces, and the "censorship" is unlikely to miss such a volume.
Special for EADS: We, citizens of the Russian Federation, will not flatter ourselves with the "pot-bellied", purely civilian shape of the CONCORDE-2 fuselage (apparently, this is not a Tu-160 or a B-1V). We won't buy. Fuel is H2 (hydrogen). And we know xy from hydrogen, and how to store it.
Therefore, Airbus will not take us with a hypersonic passenger transcontinental liner for as many as 19 passengers. We are on the watch. Here such bison are going on the "Military Review" that it will not work to quietly push a hypersonic strategist under the guise of a GPS on 19 oligarchs' heads.
And finally: Supersonic and coming back?
Around the world, aerospace companies and organizations, including NASA, are intensively developing technology that will allow passengers (or cargo) to fly again faster than the speed of sound. Here is some of them:
Spike S-512 supersonic passenger jet
AERION AS2
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S N + 2
Skreemr: 12,000 km / h from Canadian engineer and inventor Charles Bombardier and designer Ray Mattison
It is noteworthy that this Supersonic is launched from Earth using an electromagnetic rail gun at a speed close to 5000 km / h … The Skreemr must then fire the liquid oxygen rocket engine, gaining altitude and speed enough to power a hypersonic ramjet engine, which uses the speed already reached by the aircraft to compress the incoming air. By burning the incoming hydrogen and compressed oxygen, such an engine can accelerate an aircraft to an incredible speed of 12,000 km / h.
Poor 75 passengers (for whom it is designed), how will they survive with such a launch from an electromagnetic catapult? An anti-nausea paper bag is indispensable here. An anti-overload high-altitude suit for everyone?
The first of this new generation of supersonic (hypersonic) passenger aircraft have a realistic chance of taking off in the early 2020s. Until then…. So far, a consortium of European aerospace companies is designing a rescue capsule for promising hypersonic passenger aircraft.
HYPMOCES Project (HYPersonic MOrphing for a Cabin Escape System)
