New supersonic jet will fly from London to New York in just TWO HOURS - twice the speed of Concorde




A British firm has unveiled plans for a supersonic plane that will travel twice the speed of Concorde and slash journey times across the Atlantic.



HyperMach revealed its plans for the SonicStar aircraft at the Paris Air Show last week and claims the plane will be so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours.



A trip from New York to Sydney, meanwhile, will be cut by a staggering 75 per cent - from 20 hours on a commercial airliner to just five hours.

Return of supersonic travel: The SonicStar aircraft will be twice as fast as Concorde - so quick that travelling from London to New York will take just two hours. It was unveiled at the Paris Air Show

SONICSTAR'S SPECS

Maximum cruise speed - Mach 3.6

Long-range cruise speed - Mach 3.1

High-speed cruise speed - Mach 3.4

Engines - Two SonicBlue S-MAGJET Hybrid Supersonic 4000-X Series

Thrust - Flat-rated to 54,700lb

Wing area - 1,800 square feet

Landing distance - 4,800ft

Range - 6,000 nautical miles

Highest Altitude - 62,000ft



CABIN Length - 64metres

Height at maximum - 2.6metres

Width at maximum - 2.7metres

The 20-seat plane will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1, a speed made possible by S-MAGJET hybrid gas turbine engine technology; nobody has ever travelled that fast before.

Its top speed, however, will be Mach 3.6.

Richard Lugg, the chief executive of HyperMach, said: 'Mankind has always been inspired to do things better, quicker and faster and that is our ambition.'

HyperMach plans to build its engine by the end of the decade and to have the plane itself constructed by 2025.

With relatively low fuel consumption, the Sonic Star 'overcomes the economic and environmental challenges of supersonic flight to revolutionise the way we travel and drive air transportation forward into the future,' claims HyperMach.

By using electromagnetic currents across the fuselage to suppress the sonic boom, the plane is able to overcome the noise regulations that constrict supersonic travel.

It has a range of 6,000 nautical miles and its 54,700 thrust class S-MAGJET engine - actually two engines - is optimised to fly the aircraft at 62,000ft.

But it is the reduction in jet engine emissions that HyperMach believes will prove the secret of SonicStar's success.

Tomorrow's world: HyperMach plans to build its SonicStar engine by the end of the decade and to have the plane itself constructed by 2025

SonicStar will be able to cruise at Mach 3.1, a speed made possible by S-MAGJET hybrid gas turbine engine technology

A spokesman said: 'The engine is a true hybrid. It generates massive electrical power on board using proprietary integrated turbine electromagnetic generation technology to segment each engine rotating component stage electrically.

'Every stage from bypass fans to compressor to turbine, rotates independently of the other.'

This segmentation will enable the engine to change the operating speeds of its rotating components continually throughout the flight to respond to the changing conditions of the atmosphere and the flight and performance demands of the aircraft.

HyperMach claims that this, along with the S-MAGJET plasma fuel combustion technology, will result in a 40 to 50 per cent increase in the ability of the engine to convert fuel to thrust.