Supersonic Mach 4.5 Aircraft According to Airbus – just hold your breath for 30-40 years.

Over the past week, there has been a lot of press about a new Mach 4.5 supersonic aircraft, invented by Airbus, that will fly from London to NYC in one hour.  Mach 4.5 translates to a speed of over 3,000 mph (at 50,000 ft), which means you could fly from NYC or London to Shanghai in just over two hours. That means getting fresh dumplings in Shanghai can be a wonderful Sunday brunch.

Read more at: Supersonic Mach 4.5 Aircraft According to Airbus – just hold your breath for 30-40 years. – Spike Aerospace

European Aircraft Industry: Airbus reveals futuristic blended wing aircraft design

The French aircraft maker Airbus rolled out a model of the small-scale, remote-controlled aircraft demonstrator it's been using to test the design at the Singapore Air Show 2020 on Tuesday.

This "blended wing body" demonstrator is called MAVERIC -- which stands for Model Aircraft for Validation and Experimentation of Robust Innovative Controls -- and is two meters long and 3.2 meters wide.

Testing has reportedly been underway since June 2019 but the project, which launched in 2017, was kept under wraps until this month.

According to Airbus, MAVERIC helps accelerate understanding of new aircraft configurations and matures the technology necessary to fly such a radically different aircraft.

What's so special about this aerodynamic "blended wing body"? In addition to the environmental benefit -- approximately 20% less fuel burn compared to current single-aisle models with the same engine -- Airbus says the plane's unusual and spacious configuration opens up new possibilities for cabin design.

To prove this point, it also released a series of design renderings showing what passengers onboard a blended wing aircraft might be in for. Noise would likely be reduced too, due to the plane's "shielded" engine, which is mounted above the central body.

Read more at: Airbus reveals futuristic blended wing aircraft design | CNN Tr

European Aircraft Industry: Airbus is flying into the future with some amazing concepts

From Paris to Tokyo in three hours

From supersonic jets to stacking passengers Airbus is always looking to the future in the rapidly changing aerospace sector.

In recent months the plane-making giant with a wing production plant in Broughton has submitted several patents that give a glimpse into the future of air travel.

How many of these finally make it into the skies will only become clear in decades to come.

Here we look at some of their most interesting proposals over the past year.

Airbus believes the jet would take just three hours to fly from Paris to San Francisco or Tokyo to Los Angeles.

They say it would travel twice the speed of Concorde and have a cruising altitude 20km higher than conventional aircraft.

The ultra rapid air vehicle has been dubbed the “son of Concorde”.

The plans show the plane would be propelled vertically by rocket engines to supersonic speeds and then hydrogen-powered wing mounted ramjets would take over and propel the aircraft to its destination.

Late in the year they also announced a deal with Aerion to take forward plans for the world’s first private supersonic jet in as little as six years.

The AS2 plane will be capable of supersonic travel - hitting speeds of 1,217mph.

Read more: Airbus is flying into the future with some amazing concepts - Chester Chronicle

Airbus Mach 8 Hydrogen Hypersonic Airliner on the Drawing Board

If the European Union has its way they will in the not to far future a hydrogen-fueled hypersonic aircraft. The European Space Agency just got $14.5 million in a second round of funding from the EU to study the idea of developing A2, a hydrogen-fueled hypersonic aircraft that might travel at an incredible speed of Mach 5.5. They're studying what it would take to build an aircraft so fast that you could fly from Brussels to Sydney in 4.6 hours. Sheesh, that's 10,407 miles. There's even talk of an engine that could propel the craft to Mach 8. This rocket plane makes the Mach 2 of the Concorde seem glacially slow.

The trick here is to develop a special engine they're calling Scimitar, capable of thrusting the craft to those rocket-like speeds. It will be a rocket engine with a turbo compressor added, without needing liquid oxygen like those used in the boosters that send spacecraft into orbit. Such an engine is also capable of slower flight, allowing the aircraft to fly over land where supersonic speeds aren't permitted because of sonic booms.

For more: Mach 8 Hydrogen Hypersonic Airliner on the Drawing Board