LONDON (AFP) – British engineers unveiled plans Tuesday for a hypersonic jet which could fly from Europe to Australia in less than five hours.

The A2 plane, designed by engineering company Reaction Engines based in Oxfordshire, southern England, could carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000 mph (6,400 kmh), five times the speed of sound.

The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project, backed by the European Space Agency, could see the plane operating within 25 years, the firm’s boss Alan Bond told the Guardian daily.

“The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and subsonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia,” he said.

The plane, which at 143 metres (469 feet) long would be about twice the size of the biggest current jets, could fly non-stop for up to 12,500 miles (20,000 km).

It operates on liquid hydrogen, which is more ecologically friendly as it gives off water and nitrous oxide instead of carbon emissions.

Passengers would have to put up with having no windows, due to problems with heat produced at high speeds. Instead designers may put flat screen televisions where the windows would be, giving the impression of seeing outside.

Fares would be comparable with current first class tickets on standard flights, of around 3,500 pounds (4,700 euros, 6,900 dollars).

The flight time from Brussels to Australia would be four hours and 40 minutes. “It sounds incredible by today’s standards but I don’t see why future generations can’t make day trips to Australasia,” he said.

“Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it’s up to the world to decide if it wants it.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080205/ts_afp/bri…

I read about this the other week as well. It’s one of those things I would really like to see happen. Sure would do a number on air travel that is for sure. I would like to see someone come up with engines for the more traditional transport aircraft. Your intercontental flights are nowhere near as frequent as the continental flights, changing the engines on those would do quite a bit more I would think.

Funny that it runs on hydrogen, thats what I pictured the FX-80 to run on.

Something interesting that they’ve been doing locally are Low powered/no powered glide in landings.

So far the airlines that are exercising this option are saving a huge amount of fuel in their aircraft, and the CO/CO2 readings have dropped noticeably, I think they’re talking something in the neighborhood of 15% already.

But yes, it would be great if the regular commuter aircraft could come up with something more green. But hey, International flights is a start… and the fact that they’re SSTs to boot is another boon. At that rate, we should be seeing something in our military aircraft before too long.