How many such projects have been announced within the last decades? And first commercial flight scheduled for 2050? What the f
? It's 4 decades until then. Come on, we're living in the 21st century. What don't we have now what we would have then? What's so hard to build something that does fly between continents within less than 2 hours? Even Concorde was profitable once the governments handed them completely over to BA and Air France. Jut make a modern one that is ecofriendly, in relation, and one will find enough people willing to pay for such an awesome ride.
It's not really about technology or money, it's about narrowmindedness IMHO :facepalm:
that was my point exactly...
why on earth would ppl even consider a rocket-plane if there isn't even a Son-of-Concorde flying around to prove we're grown up enough as a species to be trusted around rockets in the first place? :lol:
and let's have a quick break-down of facts
Concorde-like-SST (Mach 2~2.5)
- crosses the pond in about 3 hours
- has been done before, uses mostly conventional turbojet technology
- can be vastly improved (Concorde had an aluminum frame and less CPU than a wristwatch)
- has proven itself to be operable within a profit margin
- airports have seen such thing and are mostly ready to receive it again
Rocket-Plane (mach 5+)
- crosses hemispheres within a couple of hours
- Never done before (much to learn, much to go wrong)
- Hydrogen is bulky, very thin and too cryogenic to be handled with ease
- heat loads at such airspeeds are very uninviting, rockets are dangerous
- airports would need a large infrastructure investment just to even be able to refuel the beast
- maintenance would be so heavy you could cry
- flight would not be all comfort...more g's than you'd expect to get into outside of six-flags
- if we can't make the Concorde work out, why would THIS?