Picture: Abhishek Roy

A new concept jet could streak from London to New York in 20 minutes – faster than travelling from central London to the suburbs.

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It’ll be quite a ride, though – using rocket boosters to hit Mach 5, before a ‘ramjet’ boosts the aircraft to 24 times the speed of sound.

The Antipode jet is the brainchild of Canadian designer Charles Bombardier, who says it takes advantage of an aerodynamic phenomenon called ‘Long penetration mode’ (LPM).

Speaking to the BBC, Bombardier said, ‘The idea of going from New York to London in, say 20 minutes – that’s what I think really grabbed people.


‘It’s always something that people would like – a transportation system that could take you from one place on the planet to the other side.’

Picture: Abhishek Roy

The aircraft would seat 10 people and fly at Mach 24 – 10 times faster than Concorde, and 24 times the speed of sound. It’s roughly 18264mph.



Bombardier says that the aircraft would take off from a normal runway – but would use rocket boosters on its wings to fly up to 40,000 feet, where the real fun begins.

‘The aircraft’s onboard computer would then ignite its supersonic combustion ramjet engine and accelerate up to Mach 24,’ he says.

Picture: Abhishek Roy

Bombardie came up with the design after an expert engineer, ‘proposed using a novel aerodynamic phenomenon called ‘long penetration mode (LPM)’

Bombardier says the aircraft would channel air at supersonic speed through a nozzle on its nose – inducing ‘LPM’ and preventing it from overheating.

He tells the BBC that at present, it’s a concept, but he hopes that the idea will drive people to share ideas.

Picture: Abhishek Roy

He says, ‘I wanted to help get funding to do more research, and so I tried to push the whole thing forward.

‘I know that it’s not going to lead to the exact aircraft at the end, but it might help to develop new technologies and new processes. If it does, then that I’m happy that I did something to help society.’