There’s now a design for a plane that could cruise from London to New York in 11 minutes, traveling at Mach 24 – that’s 12 times faster than Concorde!
Charles Bombardier, the industrial designer who came up with both designs, has dubbed this newest concept the Antipode, which he conceived in collaboration with Lunatic Koncepts founder Abhishek Roy.
In theory, it could carry up to ten passengers up to 12,430 miles in under an hour.
The Antipode’s wings would be fitted with rocket boosters that would propel the aircraft to 40,000 feet, and enable it to reach Mach 5.
Like the Skreemr, the plane would be powered by a scramjet engine.
Unlike conventional jet engines, scramjet engines have virtually no moving parts.
And unlike rockets, scramjet engines would burn oxygen from the atmosphere instead of having to carry heavy tanks full of oxygen.