Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to travel faster than the speed of sound? While we're a little nauseated by the thought of traveling over .2 miles per second, it's an intriguing idea.
Recently, we told you about a futuristic, hypersonic jet concept, called Skreemr, that could transport you between New York City and London in less than 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, Skreemr had a few issues including how to deal with the sonic boom noise that resulted from its speed and how to combat the heat build up on the wings and nose.
After his concept received media publicity, the creator of Skreemr, Charles Bombardier was contacted by Joseph Hazeltine of Wyle Inc., who proposed a solution, thus jointly creating a new concept entitled the Antipode.
The Antipode deals with the issues of sonic boom by using detachable and reusable rocket boosters that would separate from the Antipode once it reaches Mach 5 (1.06 miles per second) which would transport themselves back to a specified location on land.
The Antipode would then use a supersonic combustion ramjet engine to reach Mach 24 (5.11 miles per second). We can't make this stuff up... seriously, we lack the creativity and intelligence that it would take to even conceptualize going 24 times the speed of sound.
The plane will use a channel of air (traveling at supersonic speed) to combat the heat developed in the nose and wings of the plane.
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Because of it's superior design, the Antipode will be able to land on a 6,000 foot runway. To give that number scale, the runways at JFK range from 8,400 feet to 14,572 feet.
While the Antipode is much smaller than commercial jets landing at JFK, it would be going significantly faster than the average jet. However, thankfully, whiplash would be kept to a minimum as the designers state that the Antipode will glide to a landing.
While this jet concept is still lightyears away (not really, but you catch our supersonic drift), it can become a reality for big businesses or high ranking military and political officials to transport across the globe in less than an hour.
We're both fascinated and frightened by the idea that there may soon be jets transporting people faster than the speed of sound over our heads.
Check out the renderings of the Antipode below.
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[via Imaginactive]