Screenshot from YouTube video. (PatentYogi)
Want to fly on a plane that can take you to London from New York in only an hour? While it sounds like an vehicle straight out of “James Bond,” aircraft manufacturer Airbus has filed a patent with the U.S. Patent Office for the development of an “ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method for aerial locomotion.”
The jet is seen as the successor to the Concorde, a supersonic passenger jet that was in service from 1976 to 2003. While that original aircraft could hit speeds as high as Mach 2, this proposed hydrogen-powered plane would travel as high as Mach 4.5.
The aircraft would take off vertically like a space shuttle, and — once it would climb to more than 100,000 feet — ramjets, normally seen on missiles, would blast off to help the plane reach its super speed.
“When the vehicle has reached supersonic speed at very high altitude … the trajectory is gradually curved until it becomes horizontal,” reads the patent.
A video from patent-explaining website PatentYogi gives an overview of the proposed aircraft. Passengers on the plane would recline in hammocks, remaining comfortable for what the site calls a “rollercoaster” of a flight.
Those looking to book their flights will have to wait for quite a long while. Back in 2011, when the idea was first proposed, Airbus — then the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) – said that it would likely take 30 to 40 years for the plane to enter service, the BBC reports.
Airbus has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com.
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