Australia to New York in less than three hours? Australian company designs new hydrogen-fueled jet that can reach speeds of 7,000km/h
- Australians could be able to fly from Sydney to New York in two-and-a-half hours
- Brisbane-based company Hypersonix created hydrogen-fuelled scramjet engine
- It can reach speeds of 7,000km/h, while airline planes reach maximum of 1,000
- Co-founder Michael Smart said the speedy flights could be possible by 2031
Australians could soon be able to fly to New York in as little as two-and-a-half hours by 2031.
Brisbane-based company Hypersonix Launch Systems has designed a hydrogen-fuelled scramjet engine that can reach speeds of 7,000km/h.
A Boeing 777, which can carry 396 passengers at a time, can only reach speeds of up to 1,036km/h.
Commercial flights currently take 22 hours, and a layover at Los Angeles, before reaching New York from Sydney.
Hypersonix co-founder and head of research and development Michael Smart said the superior engine would be a breakthrough for air travel.
Australians could soon be able to fly to New York in as little as two-and-a-half hours by 2031
‘To combine our designs to create an airliner is 10 years away but we’re talking now about making progress towards that, and we haven’t found people to be not interested to talk to us,’ he told The Australian.
‘All this technology has been developed in Australia and we’d love for us to have an aerospace prime that was borne out of Australia.’
The superior scramjet engine is currently designed for space launch vehicles and has drawn interest from aviation giant Boeing.
The airline wants to create a reusable hypersonic space launch vehicle that would launch small satellites into the air and be used as a greener alternative to fuel-based rockets.
‘That creates all sorts of pollution and is typically only used once, so it’s really trying to develop the idea that you can fly to space rather than get blasted into space,’ Dr Smart said.
Commercial flights currently take 22 hours, and a layover at Los Angeles, before reaching New York from Sydney
‘Boeing make aircraft, so they would like to make an aircraft that could fly into space.’
Hypersonix is set up at Spring Hill in Brisbane, Queensland.
The company prides itself on its website as ‘one of the world’s leading scramjet technologists and a proven technology sector entrepreneur.’
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