Concorde was perhaps the most iconic passenger jet plane of the modern era. Thanks to dropping air travel market, high maintenance costs as well as poor efficiencies, the Concorde was grounded back in 2003. At the time, Concorde was operated by Air France and British Airways. But with things looking rosier than they ever have for air travel and the need for speed, literally, looks like Airbus may well be back in the game with the successor to the original Concorde, in the form of Concorde 2.
Concorde 2 is the nickname of the next hypersonic passenger jet that Airbus intends to build and has won patents in the United States in relation to the same. The jet is capable of flying from Paris to Tokyo in just 3 hours as compared to the fastest time right now, which is about 12 hours.
The proposed aircraft will be equipped with three different and separate propulsion systems which will help the aircraft gain an altitude of about 100,000 feet. In comparison, most of the aircraft today have a higher ceiling of anywhere between 34,000 to 40,000 feet above the earth's surface. The Concorde 2 will take off just like any other jet with a regular turbofan engine and after attaining a certain safe altitude, the rocket booster will kick in and push the aircraft to about 18 miles above the surface which is roughly about 95,000 feet high. At this altitude, the Concorde 2 will switch over to a Ramjet and cruise at a speed of about Mach 4.5 which is said to be twice the highest cruise speed of the original Concorde.
Airbus has responded to the news saying that patents are just part and parcel of their job everyday and nobody should hold their breath for a Concorde 2 anytime soon. They stated, "Airbus Group and its divisions apply for hundreds of patents every year in order to protect intellectual property, these patents are often based on R&D concepts and ideas in a very nascent stage of conceptualisation, and not every patent progresses to becoming a fully realised technology or product."
Despite the statement, there is no denial that the Concorde 2 even if as a concept exists, and that alone is a news that would be music to the ears of anybody with even remotest interest in speed and aviation travel.
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Source:
Image via: The Concorde Story
http://www.gizmodo.in/indiamodo/Is-Airbus-Planning-To-Build-TheConcorde-2/articleshow/48421415.cms
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