Boeing unveils plans for hypersonic passenger jet
Jun 27, 2018, 12:39 PM
Boeing unveiled plans for a hypersonic jet that could take passengers across the world in a matter of hours. (Photo: Boeing)
(Photo: Boeing)
Flying from Seattle to Shanghai in a couple hours may sound like something out of science fiction. But Boeing moved a little closer to that reality by unveiling a rendering of a planned hypersonic passenger plane.
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“This type of vehicle would be able to carry passengers at hypersonic speeds around Mach 5,” said Naveed Hussain, Vice President of Aeromechanics at Boeing. “That’s five times the speed of sound, which would enable a trans-Atlantic flight in about two hours or a trans-Pacific flight in three hours.”
Those flights currently take between 7 and 11 hours. To travel at the proposed speeds of 4,000 miles an hour, it will be essential to develop lightweight materials for the fuselage and jet engines capable of greater speeds. The hypersonic jet will also need to fly at an altitude of about 95,000 feet to cope with the added pressure of travelling that fast.
As exciting as it sounds to circumnavigate the world that quickly, we shouldn’t start making new summer plans based on the announcement.
“It’ll be about 20 to 30 years before we will see something like this in the air,” Hussain said. “But there are pieces of technology that we might see in 10.”
It’s not just customers that will benefit from transferring large groups of people at hypersonic speeds, as Hussain imagines military applications as well. “You can imagine missions on both sides,” said Hussain. “We do have concepts for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications.”
Boeing hypersonic flights won’t come cheap
What’s certain is that all of these flights will be inherently first class in cost, no matter where you’re sitting.
“The category of fares for travel such as this would certainly be in a premium class,” Hussain said. “But in terms of the specific number, we just haven’t built out the model to that degree. Plus, in the time frame that we’re looking at, the market forces would determine that kind of fare.”
At the very least, we can hope for slightly better airplane meals.
“The food will be better than one of those snack boxes I assume, right?” asked KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.
“It better be,” said Hussain, laughing.
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