News Aeronautics : EADS unveils a new hypersonic plane project

[Urwumpe]

-> Send the passengers by train, fly the plane empty, put passengers back on board. Ultimate safety!

There could be an train accident caused by a dead bird in a railroad signal switch box.

 

[N_Molson]

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster[/ame]

Not far from inferno, either...

 

[Artlav]

There could be an train accident caused by a dead bird in a railroad signal switch box.

Not caused by the plane failure! Plane is completely safe - not a single passenger would ever die inside it.

-> Avian flak vests.

->Native guards:

 

[APDAF]

Moach it does not take 8 hours it take 20 hours.

 

[N_Molson]

-> very high gain, short range radar coupled to a laser gun / quad shotguns turret ? :lol:

 

[Urwumpe]

-> very high gain, short range radar coupled to a laser gun / quad shotguns turret ? :lol:

-> Specially genetically engineered wild geese with stealth feathers.

 

[N_Molson]

-> Falcon pods : can free hunting falcons with a jetpack on the back for better acceleration and a tungstene-reinforced nose. Self-destruction charge explodes if the falcon turns back.

 

[Urwumpe]

-> Falcon pods : can free hunting falcons with a jetpack on the back for better acceleration and a tungstene-reinforced nose. Self-destruction charge explodes if the falcon turns back.

-> light-weight Plexiglas strawberry jam glasses to jam the falcons.

 

[N_Molson]

-> psychological weapon.

 

[Ghostrider]

Don't underestimate the birds: if all else fail, they'll wait for the passengers when they get home. They'll be right there with a machete and a hockey mask.

 

[N_Molson]

:shifty::hunter::hunter:

 

[C3PO]

Well, the plane has already set a world record for the earliest hijack. :rofl:

 

[FADEC]

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:

 

[N_Molson]

I would be ready to pay a seat for a ride in something like this. Plus it would be the opportunity to visit New York (again) or Tokyo (maybe it's not the best time with Fukushima).

 

[Moach]

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?

 

[IgnoreThisBarrel]

~40 years until first expected commercial flight? The bureaucracy that is NASA could do so much better than that... Why is it that realistic goals for spaceflight are at most 20 years or so in the future yet plans for new airplanes (which are even less likely to be carried out than many spaceflight projects) always have an estimated completion date of much farther from now?

 

[Notebook]

Military had a few goes with hybrid jet/rocket planes, didn't end well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saunders-Roe_SR.53
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1957/1957 - 0691.html

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCASO_Trident"]SNCASO Trident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-91_Thunderceptor

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_720"]Avro 720 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

N.

 

[Ark]

~40 years until first expected commercial flight? The bureaucracy that is NASA could do so much better than that... Why is it that realistic goals for spaceflight are at most 20 years or so in the future yet plans for new airplanes (which are even less likely to be carried out than many spaceflight projects) always have an estimated completion date of much farther from now?

When was the last time that ANYTHING with a projected completion date 20 years in the future actually came to completion? Let alone something half a lifetime away.