Charles Bombardier, the industrial designer and engineer behind the impossibly fast supersonic Skreemr jet, has already outdone himself. His next big idea? A new concept plane called the Antipode that’s (theoretically anyway) more than twice the speed of the Skreemr.
Using a scramjet, an aerodynamic technique known as “long penetration mode” and rocket boosters, Bombardier says that the Anitpode could travel at Mach 24. This means (again theoretically) that this plane could fly from New York to London in 11 minutes flat.
So, let’s just gloss over the fact that anything traveling at that speed would break the sound barrier and create a sonic boom. Other big problems include the fact that NASA hasn’t even been able to build a stable scramjet and, of course, heat.
Any object traveling past Mach 5 will likely just burn up, much less a commercial aircraft traveling at more than four times that speed. Still, Bombardier is confident that he’ll be able to find solutions to these problems in the next few decades (or so). Looks like we’ll just have to wait and see.
SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Is this concept aircraft impossibly cool or just impossible? If developed, could the tech needed to power this concept plane be better applied elsewhere?
Email us or comment below.